Update on investigation of workers involved in the Holton avian flu outbreak

Britain's Health Protection Agency (HPA) has now completed the first stage of the public health follow up in relation to the outbreak of avian flu on a poultry farm in Holton, Suffolk.

The Agency alongside local NHS public health colleagues, the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and Bernard Matthews has offered antiviral drugs to 480 people and 310 of those have so far received seasonal flu vaccination. The local Health Protection Unit continues to monitor the situation locally working together with Defra and Bernard Matthews.

As a precautionary measure only a small number of workers who are involved in the cleaning and decontamination process are continuing to take antiviral medications.

The Agency has carried out testing on a total of six people who developed flu like symptoms. Three of these people met the Agency's criteria for testing and three others were tested as a precautionary measure. All six patients tested negative for avian flu, and received appropriate medical care.

Dr Jonathan Van Tam , a flu expert at the Agency, said : “The risk of any workers testing positive for avian flu has been and remains very low as they have followed all the necessary precautions in terms of protective clothing and hygiene measures, and have been offered antiviral drugs.”

The Agency also concluded that the risk to food processing workers and other personnel working in around the food processing plant as being very low and as a result they didn't require any antiviral treatment.

H5N1 avian flu remains largely a disease of birds. The virus does not transmit easily to humans, as evidenced by the 270 or so confirmed infections worldwide to date, versus the millions of people exposed to poultry everyday in SE Asia . Almost all human H5N1 infections so far have been associated with close contact with dead or dying poultry and in all human cases there has been no evidence of efficient human to human transmission.