Foot-and-mouth disease hits more humans

LONDON - The foot-and-mouth battle raged on new fronts yesterday as news that more humans may have been infected brought fresh health worries and dealt a blow to the campaign to woo back skittish tourists.

Health officials said they were investigating two more suspected cases of human infection.

The announcement came 24 hours after a slaughterman who was sprayed with the entrails from a burst animal carcass became the first suspected victim of the disease in 34 years.

Results of the tests are not expected before next week.

A spokesman for the Government's Public Health Laboratory Services (PHLS) declined to give details on where the two new suspected cases were within Britain, or to say whether they were people who had been working with infected animals.

A PHLS official downplayed the threat of an human epidemic and said it was not likely to be passed from human to human.

"The few cases that there have been in human patients have all been a relatively mild flu-like illness."

It remains to be seen if the reassurances will be enough to bring back the tourists who last year brought in more than £12 billion ($42.70 billion) to Britain.

- REUTERS

Herald Online feature: Foot-and-mouth disaster

World organisation for animal health

UK Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food

The European Commission for the Control of Foot-and-Mouth Disease

Pig Health/Foot and Mouth feature

Virus databases online