Flu fears prompt vaccine plea for poultry workers

People who deal with poultry are being offered free anti-flu vaccines, because of fears they could catch bird flu and human flu together and give rise to a new mutation.
By The Newsroom
Published 15th Oct 2010, 16:25 BST
Updated 15th Oct 2010, 16:25 BST

The NHS authorities for North Yorkshire and York announced a vaccination drive this week and said a thousand Defra-registered poultry farms, poultry keepers and poultry processors in their area would be contacted.

People who work closely with birds and are not offered the vaccine can tell their local GPs it is national NHS policy to vaccinate against the risk of new crossover strains, according to a North Yorkshire spokesman.

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He said: "It has been policy for a while but has not been promoted much. Swine flu last year concentrated our minds. But bird flu is thought to be the likeliest for farm workers to catch."

Phil Kirby, associate director of public health for NHS North Yorkshire and York, said: "Close contact with poultry means there is a slight risk of catching the virus that causes bird flu. If poultry workers are infected with human flu at the same time, the viruses could mix in the body to make a new flu virus.

"A virus produced in this way could be very infectious and cause serious illness in other people as they would not have any immunity.

"The flu vaccine will protect against ordinary human flu. The vaccine will not protect against bird flu and we strongly advise poultry workers to continue to follow infection control guidance."

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The announcement defined "close contact with poultry" as – "spending a lot of time in areas where live poultry are kept; handling live poultry; sorting eggs in hatcheries or poultry houses; cleaning poultry houses; collecting and removing poultry manure or litter; slaughtering poultry and removing the guts and other parts; cleaning and disinfecting live bird and evisceration areas in slaughter houses".

The East Yorkshire NHS Trust said it had prioritised poultry workers previously but had recently had a drive to encourage take-up.

A dangerous strain of bird flu which humans could catch was the international health scare of 2008.

It did not do much damage in Europe, in the end, but there was an outbreak in Canada last year.

CW 16/10/10

Related topics:PeopleFluNHSNorth YorkshireYork