Q-Fever Outbreak in the Netherlands
It’s not getting nearly the publicity of Swine Flu, but Q-Fever has already killed five people in The Netherlands, compared to the two people killed to date by Swine Flu.
Not very much is known about Q-Fever, but it is contagious and is associated with farm animals, especially those reared intensively in factory farm environments.
Here’s the Dutch newspaper version of the story and the Wikipedia page on Q-fever.
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2 Responses to “Q-Fever Outbreak in the Netherlands”
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It’s amazing that The Netherlands has had only 2 Swine Flu deaths – the total in Australia is now over 160 but I guess we have been in winter and more susceptible.
Q-Fever sounds nasty and not surprising that factory farming help spread this sort of disease.
James
They may be taking a sensible approach to Q-fever in a way, vaccinating rather than slaugtering. I think the panic and slaughter policy we’ve had here for foot and mouth is way over the top.
It’s been crazy here over swine flu. First of all they were sowing the seeds of panic by quarantining everyone with the disease, which had no chance of working given the inevitable undiscovered cases. Then they found it was only a mild flu after all, and told us to keep calm. They made Tamiflu freely available, then found it had side effects, and are now resticting it. It’s ridiculous.
I’ve seen nothng about Q-fever over here. I hope they’ve at least warned people to be on the lookout for symptoms!