News Archives |
Volume 2 No 23; 6 June 2008
UK outbreak of H7N7 avian influenza
The avian influenza virus subtype that caused an outbreak of the disease in Banbury, Oxfordshire, this week has been identified as H7N7. The UK Department for the Environment Farming and Rural Affairs (Defra) and the Health Protection Agency (HPA) are both involved in managing the animal and human health implications of this outbreak.
The Oxfordshire outbreak has led to the culling of more than 20,000 chickens and the imposition of a protection zone of 3km and a surveillance zone of 10km. Bird gatherings and movement restrictions apply within these zones. Defra and the HPA have stressed that the risk to public health is very low. The best possible evidence has been used in deciding on the measures to protect those exposed to the virus and involved in the clean-up operation.
A total of 80 people were either provided with post-exposure prophylaxis or, in the case of those involved in the culling and clean-up operation, with personal protective equipment and pre-exposure prophylaxis.
References
1. “Confirmed H7 avian influenza in Oxfordshire poultry farm”, HPA press release, 4 June 2008, http://www.hpa.org.uk/webw/HPAweb&HPAwebStandard/HPAweb_C/1212564245501?p=1204186170287.
2. "Avian influenza (bird flu): Latest situation", Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs website: http://www.defra.gov.uk/animalh/diseases/notifiable/disease/ai/latest-situation/index.htm.
Children at two schools in south east England offered hepatitis A vaccination
More then 200 schoolchildren have been offered hepatitis A vaccine after the identification of two clusters of the disease in the southeast of England .
The index case was a schoolchild who developed clinical symptoms on 3 March. Subsequently, infection of three members of a second family was microbiologically confirmed on the 28 May.
The existence of a second cluster was confirmed when two cases were microbiologically confirmed in a third family, one of whose members attended a special needs school. Another school-aged child in the second family was a classmate of the index case.
The local Health Protection Unit subsequently made available hepatitis A vaccine to children at the two schools where cases have been identified. It also disseminated advice about the importance of good hygiene in school settings.
Staff members who had direct contact with children at the special needs school are also being offered hepatitis A vaccine. Specimens from the cases are currently undergoing further testing at the HPA's Centre for Infections.
Groups most commonly at risk of infection with hepatitis A are intravenous drug users, men who have sex with men and international travellers between the ages of 25 and 44 years. The disease is less severe in young children who are often asymptomatic despite being infected. The HPA believes that susceptibility in the general population is high and that the potential risk of outbreaks has increased in recent years.