A slaughterman was tonight suspected of having
contracted foot-and-mouth disease.

The unnamed man from Cumbria was presently
undergoing tests to establish if he has the
disease, the Department of Health said.

This is London

-- spider (spider0@usa.net), April 23, 2001

Answers

I've heard over and over again that hoof & mouth is not communicable to humans. Not even horses can get it. Somebody is trying to spread a nasty rumor.

-- Guy Daley (guydaley@altavista.com), April 23, 2001.

They have not confirmed it yet but it is
not the first case of humans getting the
disease. There was a case during the
previous outbreak in the 60's. They have
said that most people would not be in a
situation where they were swimming in cow
carcass. Also said was that when humans
get h&m, they get a mild case that clears
up in a week.

-- spider (spider0@usa.net), April 23, 2001.

A CBC article says:

Authorities said they will need up to 48 hours to confirm whether or not the slaughterman has foot-and-mouth.

If it turns out to be the disease, it will be the first human case of the ailment since 1967, when a British man caught it during the last outbreak of foot-and-mouth in that country.

Foot-and-mouth disease is extremely rare in humans, and causes the same symptoms as in animals – blistering of the hands and feet and inside the mouth. It is not fatal and can be cleared up in a matter of weeks.

They've got more to worry about than humans contracting just the disease, though. Now they're finally discussion the dangerous chemical pollution the burning is causing.

Environmentalists warn that the large pyres of burning animal carcasses could be spewing dangerous levels of poisonous chemicals into the air. Officials confirm that the level of carcinogenic dioxin emissions released from the pyres over the first six weeks of the crisis have already exceeded those from factories over an entire year.

And on Monday the government admitted there is a risk to human health, but insisted it's minimal.

Bill Harper runs an animal feed company close to of one of the fires burning in southern England. He's concerned about the effects. "My immediate concern is having smoke in the factory. We're making animal food to human food standards and we don't want to be exposing any of the ingredients or the finished products to the smoke."

-- Rachel Gibson (rgibson@hotmail.com), April 23, 2001.

Last summer there were two cases of human F&MD in our community. Two twin children of friends of mine(the mother is a vet assistant) who lives on a farm outside our town and the other case was my three year old relative who visits the area quite often with her mother (my cousin) during the summer. I saw my cousins daughter in her condition at the time. Her face was very red and raw looking espeicially around her mouth with large white welts on and around her face,mouth and lips. The little girl was visibly in discomfort. Her mother agonized for many days first trying to treat the child herself; thinking it was an allergy of some sort. Finally she took her to the doctor who diagnosed her condition as Foot & Mouth Disease. We were both shocked about it because it was two weeks before that we had heard that my other friends twin daughters had contracted same. All childrens symtoms cleared up in about a week.I never heard anymore of this till it all started to happen in England.

-- David Rowe (daverowe@linetqp.com), April 23, 2001.

NEWSFLASH: New suspected cases of human foot-and-mouth

Two more suspected cases of human foot-and-mouth disease are being investigated.

The cases are in other parts of the UK, a spokesman for the Public Health Laboratory Service said.

He would not disclose where or who they affected. Ananova will bring you more on this as we get it.

Ananova

-- spider (spider0@usa.net), April 24, 2001.

Better put the poor bastards down. They're carriers now of course. Could muck up the PM's entire H&M containment strategy, you know.

>"<

-- Squirrel Hunter (nuts@upina.cellrelaytower), April 24, 2001.

Man With Suspected Foot-and-Mouth Case
Swallowed Fluid When Carcass Burst

The man, whose name has not been released,
was working on the slaughter of diseased
animals in Cumbria, a county in northwest
England that has been hit hard in Britain's
two-month-old epidemic of the livestock
disease. A spokesman for Prime Minister
Tony Blair said he understood that the man
was moving a rotting cattle carcass when
it burst, sending fluid into his mouth.

Tampa Bay Online

Yech ::::-§

-- spider (spider0@usa.net), April 24, 2001.

David Rowe writes:
Last summer there were two cases of human F&MD in our community. Two twin children of friends of mine.
Are you sure this was not Hand, Foot and Mouth, aka the Coxsackie virus. My little one had it at 7 months old it really sucked and we both got it. Little blisters deep in the skin, at the back of the throat, on the palms of hand and foot. The blisters really itched and hurt. A short spike of fever (~6 hours) about 102 occurs 1-2 days before the blisters, and all goes away in about 2-3 days.
Not trying to discount your story it that many folks confuse the two.

-- (perry@ofuzzy1.com), April 24, 2001.

Perry is quite right-- there is a fairly common and communicable disease of humans caused by several different viruses, especially Coxsackie virus, that has a similar "common name" to the animal FMD causing all the fuss in the UK. They are completely different conditions in terms of etiology. I am not at my home or office computers this week so can't get into this in more detail, but not too long ago I posted a more detailed explanation on I think the Rural Living (Country Living?) forum on Greenspun. Perhaps someone could find it and cross-post to GICC, else I'll try to do so next week.

Cheers,

--Andre from Pennsylvania (currently in Atlanta at an annual CDC epidemiology/public health conference)

-- Andre Weltman, M.D. (aweltman@state.pa.us), April 24, 2001.

Dear "perry" I do believe you are right. Having thought further, I'ev rememberd that one of my employees asked for time off(one week)for the same symptoms around the same period of time. He had cancer sores both outside and inside his mouth including his hands and feet. He was in agony. He could hardly talk to me breathing thru his mouth. Yes, now that I have spoken to a few more poeple; there was a small outbreak of this disease in our community last summer - we all called it as "Foot & Mouth" without properly referring to the real name. I'm only aware of the three cases mentioned earlier including this one. I'm still curious though ....If you go to the "Lake District" web cam site you may see sometimes daily pics taken in the heart of North England, Cumbria.You will see pics of burning cattle and signs posted on fences to keep out. But what I want everyone to see is ...as you browse around the website;you will read a heartwrenching poem posted by a vet who's duty it was to slaughter the very aniamls he loved. He describes their condition in detail. Now to me this is very similar to what humans seem to display when they contract this "other" disease. I have to wonder; the only difference really between animals and us in this particular case is that we don't cull ourselves.

To Andre, Have you come across the same story I posted regarding the abandoned cattle(Holsteins) found dead in a field outside the Erie,Pennsylvania area? Or anyone else for that matter?

One more item : Farmers already in our area of S. Ontario, one in particular have quarantiend their farms already. The story was featured in the "Niagara Farmer" paper about a month ago.

-- David Rowe (daverowe@linetap.com), April 26, 2001.

Here's a link to Dave's Lakeland Cam

-- Ron Trapnell (fridayfiles@space.com), April 26, 2001.

Four more people tested for foot-and-mouth

The latest samples were received by the
Central Public Health Laboratory in north
London after the four went to their GPs
with concerns.

The results of the tests on all the suspected
victims are not expected until next week.

Ananova

-- spider (spider0@usa.net), April 26, 2001.

13 people test negative for foot-and-mouth

The Public Health Laboratory Service (PHLS) said
tests have proved negative.

But a spokesman said two more people are being
tested, bringing the total thought to have
contracted foot-and-mouth to 15.

. . .

One of the negative cases was shown to have
contracted a human enterovirus, an infection
in humans which gives similar symptoms to
foot-and-mouth, the PHLS spokesman said.

Ananova

-- spider (spider0@usa.net), April 28, 2001.

See http://hv.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=004oZ5

for my brief summary of the different diseases in humans versus in animals.

FWIW, a taxonomic point: Coxsackie viruses are a subset of enteroviruses. Hence in the newspaper articles above they probably are in fact referring to one of the Coxsackies, although there are many other enteroviruses such as "Enterovirus 71" that cause an identical clinical picture in humans.

-- Andre Weltman (aweltman@state.pa.us), April 30, 2001.

Reply to David Rowe: I haven't heard anything about cattle from Erie but will keep my ears to the ground. I deal with the human side of things so might not hear about it if it doesn't involve a human disease or something spectacular and unusual. Also, I have been away for a week and am as usual astonished about the volume of mail I need to reply to...email, snail mail, whatever.

Cheers,

-- Andre Weltman (aweltman@state.pa.us), April 30, 2001.