Veterinarian Linked to H5N1 Outbreak in England is Hospitalized
Recombinomics Commentary
February 7, 2007
A VET working on the Suffolk bird flu outbreak was tested for the disease last night after developing breathing problems.
Reports said Gordon Young fell ill after working on the Bernard Matthews farm where 160,000 turkeys have been culled.
He was being cared for in an isolation ward at Nottingham City Hospital near his home. Doctors expect to receive the results of tests on him later today.
Last night experts called on the public not to panic amid fears the H5N1 strain of bird flu had jumped to humans. Prof John McCauley, of the MRC National Institute of Medical Research, said: “There is always the risk of someone who has been involved becoming infected.”
A government Defra spokesman said Mr Young, in his 60s, had a mild respiratory illness.
The vet had arrived at the farm on Sunday and left on Monday.
He gave an interview that day explaining site safety procedures. Mr Young stressed: “We take biosecurity very seriously.”
The above comments provide additional detail on the veterinarian hospitalize in England. Since his exposure was on Sunday, an H5N1 infection on Tuesday would be mild, at best. Media reports indicate the victim had been collecting swabs from the throats of gassed turkeys, which is a dangerous procedure, even for workers with protective equipment and prophylactic antivirals. Test results are due today, although false negatives on samples collected two days after exposure are common, especially if the patient has already taken Tamiflu, which limits spread of H5N1 in the patient.
Details on the sequences of the Qinghai H5N1 strain in England have not been released. Although it is closely related to the H5N1 in Hungary, those sequences and the recent sequences in Krasnodar have not been released either.
The most recent Qinghai H5n1 sequences that are public are from Egypt, were the H5N1 is becoming more virulent and more infectious. In December, the largest H5N1 cluster in Egypt was reported. The cluster members had two changes in or near the receptor binding domain. One change, M230I, is present in seasonal flu (H1N1, H3N2, and influenza B). It was also present in the H7N3 in England last season, although the coding was different. However, both coding forms have been identified in Qinghai H5N1 in Egypt this season, which link the H5N1 in Egypt to the earlier outbreak in England.
In Egypt, all confirmed human infections by H5N1 this season have been fatal, as has the one confirmed case in Lagos, Nigeria, which was also from a familial cluster. Qinghai H5N1 from last season in Egypt was closely related to Qinghai H5N1 in Lagos last season.
Moreover, the mother of the latest fatality in Egypt has been hospitalized with bird flu symptoms. If positive, she would represent the second cluster in Egypt, which again points to an increased efficiency of transmission.
More details on the tests and clinical presentation of the case in England would be useful, as would release of the sequences of H5N1 in England and Hungary.
Media sources
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