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Pat Gardiner · Guest

Pat's Note

And you really were so stupid as to take Webster's word that the Americans
were not interested in what was going on here...

they were watching like hawks, saying little and taking it all in.

Cancel transatlantic trips and keep your heads down, rip the connection from
the wall and get on with some real work.

The Americans are interested. After BSE and Circovirus, they are really
interested.

Quote

....the fact that a cluster of 12 people with symptoms has developed is
unique.

Until now there have only been two occasions when the H7N2 avian flu virus
crossed the species barrier from poultry to humans.

Both cases occurred in the US and involved only one person each - in 2002
and 2003.

The North Wales outbreak will become the focus for intense scientific study,
particularly if person-to-person transmission is established. Some of the 12
people who have been identified as experiencing flu-like symptoms and
conjunctivitis did not have close contact with the infected poultry.

Unquote

http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0200wales/tm_headline=health-worker-contracts-avian-flu-virus&method=full&objectid=19216784&siteid=50082-name_page.html

Health worker contracts avian flu virus

May 30 2007

by Madeleine Brindley, Western Mail

MORE than 70 patients and hospital staff have been given anti-flu drugs
after a healthcare worker contracted the avian flu virus.

Staff and patients at two hospitals - Ysbyty Glan Clwyd and Ysbyty Gwynedd -
have been identified as potentially at risk of contracting H7N2.

They are among a list of 221 people who have been identified as contacts,
although the number of people confirmed as showing signs of contamination
remains unchanged at 12 - none are seriously ill.
It emerged last night that 79 patients and staff from ward six at Ysbyty
Glan Clwyd have been offered Tamiflu as a precaution after coming into
contact with a healthcare worker who is being treated for the virus.
And a further 69 patients and staff who were treated at Ysbyty Gwynedd's
accident and emergency department, Trysfan and Gogarth wards, have also been
contacted by health officials.
A male patient was treated at the hospital in Bangor for the avian flu
virus, but was discharged on May 18.

A spokesman for North West Wales NHS Trust, which runs the hospital, last
night said 66 of these people had been contacted and none are experiencing
symptoms.
He added, "The incubation dates suggest that we will not see any further
development of the disease in these people."

The incubation period for this strain of avian flu is eight days, during
which time infected people would be expected to experience flu-like symptoms
or conjunctivitis.
Dr Marion Lyons, lead consultant in communicable diseases for the National
Public Health Service for Wales (NPHS), said, "We are actively managing the
outbreak. This involves taking every precaution in identifying possible
contacts of the infected poultry or people who have been ill after contact
with the infected poultry.

"We have assessed the risk to others and can confirm that the healthcare
worker was working at Ysbyty Glan Clwyd during the time when she may,
possibly, have been infectious, between May 21 and May 23.
"Consequently the patients and staff with whom the healthcare worker has had
contact are being offered Tamiflu as a precaution."#

Health officials have not yet been able to rule out person-to-person spread
of avian flu, although it is understood that the majority of confirmed cases
had some form of close contact with the smallholding at the centre of the
outbreak.

It was confirmed last Thursday that 15 chickens had died from H7N2 avian flu
at a farm in Llanfihangel Glyn Myfyr, near Corwen.

The chickens - 22-week-old Rhode Island Reds - had been bought by the
smallholding's owners Barbara Cowling and Tony Williams from Chelford
Market, in Cheshire.

A 1km exclusion zone, to prevent the movement of birds, is in place around
the farm and 30 birds were slaughtered last week.

Tests on samples taken from a second farm, on the Llyn Peninsula, last night
confirmed birds at the site had not been infected with the virus despite a
link with Chelford Market.

Meanwhile a dozen schoolchildren and two members of staff at Ysgol Henllan
primary school, in Denbigh, have also been offered courses of Tamiflu after
one of the pupils contracted the virus.
The child lives at a neighbouring property to the farm and the staff and
pupils receiving treatment had all been in close proximity to the youngster.

Although health officials have been keen to reassure the public that the
North Wales outbreak does not pose a serious risk to the public, the fact
that a cluster of 12 people with symptoms has developed is unique.

Until now there have only been two occasions when the H7N2 avian flu virus
crossed the species barrier from poultry to humans.

Both cases occurred in the US and involved only one person each - in 2002
and 2003.

The North Wales outbreak will become the focus for intense scientific study,
particularly if person-to-person transmission is established. Some of the 12
people who have been identified as experiencing flu-like symptoms and
conjunctivitis did not have close contact with the infected poultry.

Dr Brendan Mason, a consultant epidemiologist at the NPHS, said, "We are
not, at the moment, saying that person-to-person transmission has taken
place, but we cannot rule that out.
"We have been looking very hard to identify cases when they have occurred
and to prevent them. We have been looking at people who have been in close
contact with the poultry or with the human cases.

"This is not serious in the sense that we have had a limited number of cases
and the cases of avian flu in humans have been very tight and associated
with the small holding, with the chickens or people close to it. There is no
suggestion that the virus has taken hold or that there are long chains of
transmission from person to person to person."

Many experts believe the next pandemic flu strain will emerge from the
animal kingdom - some believe the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain, which has
killed more than 180 people across South East Asia could be a potential
source, if it mutates to become more readily transmitted between humans. But
the NPHS does not believe H7N2 will mutate to form a new, virulent virus.

Dr Mason said, "We have been very fortunate in the timing of this because,
where pandemic strains have emerged in the past, it has been through a
reassortment of two viruses, where one person or an animal has become
infected with two different strains with the ability to mix.

"We are well out of the European and UK flu season and no human flu virus
strains are circulating in Wales at the moment."

Bird flu outbreaks Virginia, West Virginia and North Carolina, 2002 During
the spring and summer an outbreak of H7N2 infected 210 flocks of chickens
and turkeys. More than 2.7 million birds were slaughtered. One person who
helped with the cull became ill but recovered.

New York, November 2003 A patient was admitted to a hospital in New York
with respiratory symptoms. The patient recovered and went home after a few
weeks. It was confirmed in March 2004 that the patient had been infected
with H7N2 virus but the source is unknown.

Delaware, New Jersey and Maryland, February 2004 An outbreak of H7N2 was
reported on two chicken farms in Delaware and in four live bird markets in
New Jersey supplied by the farms. In March 2004, surveillance samples from a
flock of chickens in Maryland tested positive for H7N2.

Other outbreaks of H7 strain avian flu

H7N3 in Norfolk, March and April 2006 A poultry worker poultry worker
developed conjunctivitis caused by H7 avian influenza and three others
tested negative. Thousands of birds were culled after the H7N3 strain was
discovered. Tens of thousands of chickens at three farms in North Tuddenham
were slaughtered.

H7N3 in Canada, February 2004 A number of poultry workers became ill in the
midst of an outbreak of H7N3 in poultry. They suffered mild eye infections.

H7N7 in the Netherlands, 2003 89 people contracted H7N7 after an outbreak in
poultry on several farms. It also spread to pigs. A vet who visited one of
the affected farms died after developing acute respiratory distress syndrome
and complications related to H7N7 infection. The majority of the cases
occurred as a result of direct contact with infected poultry, but there were
three possible cases of transmission from poultry workers to family members.

Regards
Pat Gardiner
www.go-self-sufficient.

Gerald L R Stubbs · Guest

Dear Splat,
So you are still fucked in the head...
Try building a boat, or restoring a motor car, or doing anything interesting.
Anything but this continued wanking off about your dead pig and nasty vets.
As obsessions go, yours is up with the best.
You are a stupid, obsessive twat.

Homework for tonight is to understand the last line, above. Read it
again and again until you understand it. Have a meeting with yourself.
--
All the best,
Stubbsy.

Pat Gardiner · Guest

"Gerald L R Stubbs" <stubbs@zetnet.co.uk> wrote in message
news:3130303033303833465E236795@zetnet.co.uk...