British school offered treatment after child infected with bird flu

A group of school pupils and teachers have been given anti-viral treatment as a precaution after a child became infected with a low-risk strain of bird flu in Wales, health officials said on Monday.

The National Public Health Service for Wales (NPHS) said a dozen schoolchildren aged nine and 10 as well as two teachers were receiving the Tamiflu drug after it learned they had spent time with the youngster.

It said in a statement that the group in Ysgol Henllan school in Denbighshire, which has 58 pupils, were at a "very slight" risk of infection.
NPHS said Sunday that a total of 11 people had symptoms of flu or conjunctivitis, though nobody is seriously ill. They were among 36 people who could have been in contact with the disease.

It said the child, who lives close to the farm in Corwen, north Wales, where the H7N2 strain was first discovered, was responding to treatment at home.

Health officials could not rule out that the disease had spread from person-to-person but said they were still investigating.

"Person to person spread would be very unusual but limited spread of this type has been seen elsewhere in the past in some cases of bird flu," an NPHS spokeswoman said.

Chickens from a second farm in the Llyn Peninsula in northwest Wales were being tested, with restrictions imposed on the movement of people and animals from the property.

A total of 30 chickens from the smallholding in Corwen have now been slaughtered after 15 Island Red chickens died.

Brendan Mason, a consultant epidemiologist with the NPHS for Wales, said offering the Tamiflu to the group "is an unusual step for us to take because the risk of the infection being passed from the child to other pupils is so small.

"However, this particular virus usually only affects birds and is relatively unknown in humans. Its clinical characteristics have not been fully defined," Mason added.

"It is very rare to see this particular flu virus so we are taking every reasonable precaution to eliminate it from the community."