The H2N7 bird flu virus is a much less dangerous version...

The bird flu outbreak of Wales is now over according to health authorities in the region. Over 250 people who had had contact with people and birds that could have been infected with the bird flu disease have been held in quarantine for seven days and have all come out in the clear now. In all only two people tested positive for this particular bird flu virus.

The outbreak that started from some infected chickens at a farm in Conwy caused a lot of panic in the region and even though it was a low risk bird flu virus that had been identified people were still worried.  The virus that was discovered on the farm was the H2N7 bird flu virus which is a much less dangerous version of the H5N1 bird flu illness that can kill humans if they get infected with it.

According to Dr Marion Lyons who was speaking on behalf of the National Public Health Service the risk of bird flu in north Wales is now non existent. At Ukmedix News we feel that even though a bird flu outbreak is not something that is good this whole experience has been extremely beneficial for the UK’s Health Authorities as it has shown that the bird flu response capabilities of the country need working on.  They were extremely lucky that this time the bird flu outbreak was only a mild and not particularly dangerous version so in a sense they have had a chance to “practice” in a less risky situation.

What immediately became clear was that people in the region were desperate to get information about the bird flu outbreak and the health authorities did not control the flow of information properly as this led to some panic and speculation that the bird flu outbreak was in fact much more severe than it really was.