Teachers and children at a local school were also offered the Tamiflu drug...

According to the North Wales Assembly Member Brynle Williams it was extremely hard for him to find out detailed information about the bird flu outbreak and that he was confronted with a ‘blackout’ when he tried to get facts about it.

It now appears that the health authorities have identified 220 individuals who could have been in contact with the H7N2 bird flu virus and that twelve people have actually developed flu symptoms or conjunctivitis. Just for the record they have not contracted the far more deadly H5N1 bird flu virus but just a less severe version of it. Hospital staff as well as any other people who may have been in contact with people who were near the location of infected birds have been given the bird flu medication Tamiflu as a precaution. Teachers and children at a local school were also offered the Tamiflu drug just to be on the safe side. 

Mr Brynle Williams was heard to say that he thought the way that the Ministry of Health conducted the response to the bird flu outbreak was ‘absolutely appalling‘. He said that as an Assembly Member he should have been kept in the loop and not had to resort to finding out details from the national press. He said that when he telephoned the Health Ministry he was told that they could not tell him details of where the outbreak was and that it was only the police who eventually notified him of the location.

While this incident was not a full blown H5N1 bird flu pandemic it has raised questions about how a real one would be handled and whether the authorities really understand what to do.  One of the most crucial factors is that information about the bird flu virus is handled responsibly and in a way that does not create panic, but at the same time the public have a right to know what is going on.