The UK’s bird flu hotspot has come to light today – after two poultry workers tested positive for the killer virus.
MailOnline’s interactive color-coded maps allow you to check if your local area is among the worst-affected areas.
It details all the 300-plus cases of bird flu seen in the wild since 2023 began.
Durham and Northumberland counties top the list, according to our analysis of Government data.
Only three Brits have ever contracted the pathogen, which has yet to successfully spread to humans.
Durham, Northumberland and Argyll and Bute counties are among the worst affected areas, MailOnline analysis of Government data has revealed. Health officials today revealed they were monitoring the threat “with extreme caution” amid growing fears another human pandemic could be lurking soon.
Since the country’s largest outbreak began in October 2021, more than 1,000 dead wild birds have tested positive for H5N1.
More than 300 cases of the virus in wild animals have been recorded in the UK since January 2023 alone.
Durham, Northumberland and Argyll and Bute counties are among the worst affected areas, MailOnline analysis of Government data has revealed.
Health officials today revealed they were monitoring the threat “with extreme caution” amid growing fears that another human pandemic is lurking.
It comes as ttwo British poultry workers were confirmed yesterday to have tested positive for the virus earlier this month, making them only the second and third human cases ever recorded in the UK.
Some 18, 15 and 13 cases have been confirmed in the three worst-hit areas since January 2023 respectively, according to data from the Agency for Animal and Plant Health (Apha).
However, the real number will be much higher because only a small percentage of dead birds are tested for the virus and it can take months to confirm infection.
West Lancashire, East Riding of Yorkshire and Stroud followed with the highest number of cases recorded, 10, nine and eight respectively.
At least one case has been found in more than 100 local authorities in England.
Pink and gray-footed geese, black-headed gulls and common hawks are among those seen in bird flu hotspots.
Alpha conducts year-round testing of dead wild birds, which are publicly reported.
Surveillance aims to provide information on where and what types of viruses are circulating.
The number of positive cases was calculated using wildlife officials and collections of dead wild birds reported to Apaha by members of the public.
It comes as the UK has been on alert for bird flu after health officials confirmed yesterday that two poultry workers had tested positive for the killer virus.
But no signs of human-to-human transmission have been detected in the UK yet.
It has not been confirmed which strain tested positive for the two poultry workers.
But H5N1 — which sparked the largest-ever outbreak of bird flu — is known to be still circulating.
Of the 336 cases recorded in wild animals in 2023, all reported were the H5N1 strain.
British scientists tasked with developing the bird flu ‘early human transmission scenario’ have warned that five per cent of infected people could die if the virus spreads to humans (shown in scenario three). Under the other scenario, scientists assume 1 percent of those infected will be hospitalized and 0.25 percent will die – similar to how deadly Covid will be in the fall of 2021 (scenario one). Others see a death rate of 2.5 percent (scenario two)
New cases emerged after Alan Gosling (pictured), a retired engineer in Devon, contracted the virus after his ducks, some of which lived inside his house, became infected in 2022.
Neither of the two workers – who worked on the same farm at an undisclosed location – suffered from symptoms of the disease.
Both have since tested negative after being diagnosed earlier this month.
The two men were ‘tested repeatedly over a period of time’, Professor Susan Hopkins, chief medical adviser at England’s Health Safety Agency (UKHSA), told BBC Radio 4’s Today program this morning.
“They don’t show really good symptoms and don’t transmit it to other people,” he added.
‘We don’t think this increases the risk for the population across the UK at this time.’
Health officials said one of the infected people may have tested positive for bird flu after accidentally inhaling infected material, such as feces, from a sick animal.
But they added how the second person came into contact with the virus was currently unclear.
For decades, scientists have warned that bird flu is the most likely contender for the next pandemic.
Experts say this is because of the threat of recombination – with high levels of human flu increasing the risk of humans becoming co-infected with bird flu as well.
It could see a virulent strain of bird flu join forces with the contagious seasonal flu.
But there has previously been only one case of a British person being infected with H5N1 since the ongoing outbreak began in October 2021.
Alan Gosling, a retired engineer in Devon who keeps ducks at home, contracted the virus in early 2022 after his ducks became infected.
He later tested negative while he was in quarantine for nearly three weeks.
All 160 of Mr Gosling’s ducks – including 20 who lived inside his house – were culled after he tested positive.
APHA currently reviews the risk of bird flu in humans in the UK on a weekly basis.
Government agencies have now assigned the threat level to level three, given there is “evidence” of changes to the virus’s genome that could trigger a “mammalian infection”, he said.
Each ‘sustained’ mammal-to-mammalian transmission of the pathogen would increase the threat level to four, while human-to-human transmission would push it to five.
British scientists estimate the virus could kill one to one in 20 people it infects if it manages to take off in humans.
Globally, fewer than 900 human cases of H5N1, which kills nearly 50 per cent of all those exposed, have ever been recorded.
This virus is usually contracted through close contact with infected birds, both live and dead.
As with other forms of the flu, humans can become infected if the virus gets in the eyes, nose, mouth or is inhaled.
But with bird flu, it usually occurs in people who spend a lot of time with infected creatures, such as bird handlers.
Source: | This article originally belonged to Dailymail.co.uk
