KEY POINTS:
LONDON - A worker involved in the cull of 160,000 turkeys in Britain's first outbreak of deadly bird flu is being monitored in hospital with a mild respiratory complaint, the Health Protection Agency has said.
British media said the person was a government veterinarian, but the agency would not confirm this.
It said a number of tests were being carried out, one of which was for possible contamination with the H5N1 avian flu virus.
"It is a person who was involved after the outbreak so would have been issued with full protective gear and already be on a course of antivirals, an HPA spokesman said.
"The person is not seriously ill - it could be normal winter flu - and it is highly unlikely was exposed to H5N1. Among the tests is one for H5N1. We should get the results tomorrow," he added.
The cull of almost 160,000 turkeys on the Suffolk farm where the H5N1 strain of bird flu broke out was completed late on Monday.
Russia and Japan banned British poultry imports after the country's first outbreak of the H5N1 strain in farmed poultry that sparked the cull.
Workers wearing white protective suits, black gloves and masks took the livestock away in crates to be gassed after discovery of the disease on a farm run by Europe's largest turkey producer, Bernard Matthews.
The H5N1 virus has spread into the Middle East, Africa and Europe since it reemerged in Asia in 2003 and though it remains largely an animal disease, it can kill people who come into close contact with infected birds.
In Cairo, a World Health Organisation official said a 17-year-old Egyptian girl had become the latest confirmed victim of the disease that has killed 166 people in the past four years.
Some scientists have expressed fears the virus could mutate into a form that could easily be transmitted among humans and possibly cause a global pandemic.
- REUTERS
