Britain's first bird flu 'patient zero' says he's 'very lonely' as heartbroken 79-year-old is seen for first time in self-isolation at home in Devon after catching deadly strain from 20 Muscovy ducks he kept INSIDE
- Heartbroken grandfather Alan Gosling, 79, is quarantined at his home in Buckfastleigh after testing positive
- Former rail worker said he was devastated after flock of 160 ducks — 20 of which he kept inside — were culled
- First UK human case of H5N1 which is deadly for half of people it infects — but Mr Gosling has no symptoms
Britain's first human case of a deadly bird flu strain has today been pictured for the first time in self-isolation after health officials culled more than 100 ducks who had become his live-in companions.
Heartbroken grandfather Alan Gosling, 79, is quarantined in his home in Buckfastleigh, Devon, after catching the virus from the beloved birds he befriended over a number of years.
The retired train driver said he was 'very lonely' after his flock of 160 Muscovy ducks — 20 of which he kept inside — were culled by a team in hazmat suits to prevent an outbreak.
'I can't stop thinking about the ducks,' he said this morning. 'By now, I would be back out with them, except I don't have any because they killed them all.
'I can't believe it - some of them I had for 12, 13 years since they were tiny chicks and I hand-reared them. They all had different stories - and then I had to watch them being killed and I couldn't do anything to help them. At the moment, I don't know what to do with my days.'
Health officials said Mr Gosling contracted the virus after 'very close, regular contact with a large number of infected birds, kept in and around his home'.
The pensioner is the first ever human case of H5N1 — which is fatal for up to half of the people it infects — recorded in the UK and Europe. Despite his age, Mr Gosling said he feels 'fine' and has not showed any symptoms.
He added: 'I keep turning it over in my head and when I go to sleep it's what I dream about - it never leaves my mind. Maybe one day I'd like some more ducks, or other birds, but it'll never replace what I lost.'
Despite killing millions of poultry worldwide, animal to human transmission of H5N1 is extremely rare with fewer than 1,000 people diagnosed with the strain globally since it emerged in the late 1990s.
Onward spread to people is deemed to be even rarer. But H5N1 has for years been highlighted as a potential pandemic threat due to how contagious it is in animals. It is feared that as the virus spreads, it may acquire mutations which make it easier to infect humans.
Professor Paul Hunter, an infectious disease expert at the University of East Anglia, told MailOnline that bird flu could be the next human pandemic.
Amid fears there could be a resurgence in influenza cases in the UK this winter, Professor Hunter said being infected with bird flu and regular flu at the same time could also trigger dangerous mutations.
He said: 'That's thought to be how some flu pandemic started in the past, most recently in 1968 and 1957. That's why people worry more about containing bird flu and ensuring it does not spread.
'But it's an extremely rare event that is possible but unlikely. Not a lot of people have flu at the moment, so there is a vanishingly small risk of a person with the flu catching bird flu, but it has happened in the past and could trigger a pandemic if it happened now.'
But the development comes with fears about infectious pathogens at an all-time high in the UK after two years of the Covid pandemic, reignited by the latest surge in Omicron infections.
Heartbroken grandfather Alan Gosling, 79, is pictured for the first time in isolation at his home in Devon, where more than 100 of his ducks were culled
FULL ARTICLE AT: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10378353/Pictured-Britains-bird-flu-patient-zero-seen-time-self-isolation-home-Devon.html
No comments:
Post a Comment