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Saturday, April 29th, 2006

‘Don’t panic’ plea over bird flu

Officials are reassuring the public after a poultry worker was diagnosed with conjunctivitis after contracting the H7 strain of bird flu. He was infected through close contact with diseased birds at the Witford Lodge Farm in North Tuddenham, Norfolk.

H7 is not related to the H5N1 strain which has killed more than 100 people.

Both Norfolk County Council and the Health Protection Agency stressed the countryside was “open”, despite the outbreak. “We want to reassure residents that all agencies are working together to minimise the impact of the outbreak of the form of avian flu on the local community,” said a spokesman for Norfolk County Council.

 

  It is important to remember that H7 avian flu remains largely a disease of birds
Dr Jonathan Van Tam, HPA
The Health Protection Agency said the worker, who did not want to be named, had the H7N3 strain of bird flu which is not highly infectious and was last seen in the UK in 1979. He has not required hospital treatment.He was given the antiviral drug Tamiflu as a precautionary measure on Thursday as soon as the HPA was told about the outbreak. 

The strain is not easily passed from poultry to people, or from person to person, the HPA said. “In almost all cases of human H7 infection to date, the virus has only caused a mild disease,” it said in a statement. “Therefore, the risk to the general public in this outbreak is extremely limited.”

Conjunctivitis causes red, sore, itchy eyes and the worker has no respiratory symptoms. To date, most human cases of H7 avian influenza have presented with conjunctivitis only.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/uk/4957198.stm
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