Warning over outbreak of killer ANTHRAX in holiday hotspot - 4 hospitalised and 1 dead
All of the sick individuals in the popular holiday destination are thought to have contracted the disease after contact with infected cattle or animal products.
Anthrax, a disease famed for its links to bioterrorism, is a life-threatening infection caused by the spores of the bacteria Bacillus anthracis.
If these spores enter cuts or scrapes, known as cutaneous anthrax, they can spread through the body and produce toxins, causing severe illness and death.
Four initial cases of cutaneous anthrax, three men and one woman in their mid-30s-to-late-50s, were reported in Thailand early in May.
One patient, a 53 year-old man according to local reports, later succumbed to complications caused by the bacterial infection.
Thai health officials said the man sought medical aid for a lesion on his hand that developed almost two weeks after slaughtering a cow.
His condition rapidly deteriorated as the lesion became darker— a telltale sign of the disease—with his lymph nodes swelling and he started to experience episodes of dizziness and convulsions.
He then died, just three days after initially seeking help at a local hospital.
A subsequent case, in addition to the four others, was then detected on May 28.
Three other patients, while needed to be hospitalised, have subsequently made a full recovery and been discharged from hospital.
Testing of samples taken from the patients, all from Mukdahan Province in the country's northeast which borders with the Lao People's Democratic Republic, confirmed they had all been infected with anthrax.
Other tests, carried out on the deceased patient's kitchen items and of meat taken from the cattle, also confirmed the presence of anthrax.
Officials, racing to track any more cases, identified 636 other people at risk of anthrax exposure either from working with the infected livestock or who had eaten meat from them.
While two more people fell ill during this time with diarrhoea and fever, testing for anthrax came back negative.
Thai officials have now implemented a decontamination clean of 23 households deemed to be at high risk of the infection.
They have also rolled out an animal vaccination programme in the local area in a bid to prevent any more cases.
The World Health Organisation said the risk of the outbreak spreading locally or internationally is low.
No travel advice regarding anthrax cases in Thailand has been issued by the British Government.
Anthrax, which isn't a contagious disease between people, is typically easily remedied if a patient is treated early, especially in countries like the UK.
A handful of anthrax cases are reported in Britain each year.
According to the latest NHS data three anthrax needed treatment in England in 2023-2024.
None of these were the cutaneous anthrax but instead linked to inhalation of anthrax spores or anthrax sepsis, where spores enter the blood stream directly, such as through a needle in drug use.
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Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
The major mistake you're making after a work out... and the dangerous consequences
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The Sun
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- The Sun
I couldn't work out why I always looked so ‘ugly' in selfies then realised my dream £300K home was slowly killing me
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Following an inspection by a mould dog, the couple were shocked to find there was hidden water damage in nearly every room of the house, with the biggest stain lurking under the carpet. The couple have now moved out and alternate staying between their parents' houses while stumping up $10,000 (£7,452) for a remediation company, claiming their insurance doesn't cover it. They've had to bin most of their belongings, including electronics, due to the mould and also face high medical bills. GoFundMe page has been set up by a friend to help support the couple. Sara claims the mould caused her to 'look ugly', triggered anxiety and depression and stopped her from seeing friends. Sara, from Columbus, Ohio, US, said: "My husband and I bought the house together, it's our first house. Serious Warning: New Side Effects of Popular Skin Creams Revealed "The market has been super bad, me and my husband Colin have been saving since 2020. 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Times
an hour ago
- Times
Using cash is not that hard. How else can you spend a penny?
I usually keep a couple of fivers in my wallet. I do this to tip at the few remaining restaurants that haven't sorted out tipping with contactless payment. The notes usually sit in my wallet for months. Sometime I will give one to my 14-year-old daughter when she goes to the local shops, mainly to see the 'Do you expect me pay with beads or shells?' look on her face. Anyway, this summer we went to Vietnam. As a destination it is great. Beautiful beaches, terrific food, fascinating culture, a solid 8.5/10. But from a monetary point of view it is an interesting holiday too. You see, nearly all small transactions are still made in cash. Over the two and half weeks we were there, I paid cash for everything under £5 and nearly everything under £50. I normally get cash out, maybe five times a year but suddenly it was every other day. My banking app showed endless withdrawals of every schoolboy's favourite currency, the dong. Usually 3 million at a time, or about £85, as that's the typical ATM limit. Only expensive hotels were paid for by card. It was like going back 20 years. The biggest note is the 500,000 (about £14) and the smallest I came across was 1,000 (about 3p) as the dong is one of the lowest unit value currencies in the world. It is normal to have a dozen notes that, added up, come to less than a quid. But I acclimatised quickly and, pretty soon, I was used to walking around with my pockets bulging with dong (heh heh). Once I had got over the novelty I started asking myself more philosophical questions. Such as, did spending cash change my relationship with money? Did my spending patterns change? The answer was mostly no but one point kept coming back to me again and again. Like most Britons, I was told that contactless payments were a quantum leap forward in terms of consumer convenience. And I believed it. So did Vietnam inconvenience me? Not a bit. My own experience was that any inconvenience was marginal. Having to pay for coffee or aspirin or taxis with cash just is not that bad. I am not saying that a cashless society does not have benefits but I now believe those benefits accrue mainly to businesses, banks and governments. As a consumer, going back to cash introduced remarkably little friction into my life. There were some real advantages too. I was more aware of what I was spending. It was easier to make small donations of money to the monks who wander the streets of Vietnam and lending/ giving our teen daughters and the boyfriend money was a doddle. Moreover, in Vietnam there are still large numbers of people without bank accounts. Figures for this range wildly, from about 12 per cent to 70 per cent of adults, so I am going say that there are millions (in the UK, perhaps surprisingly, about a million adults are 'unbanked'). For these people cash is not a bit of fun, it is a daily necessity. • Big Brother is watching you: China turns to face recognition This is not my first cardless rodeo. A few years back, a friend paid a debt in cash and so, for weeks, I spent fifties and twenties in the UK. I felt vaguely like a member of the criminal underworld at first but it soon became normal. There were a couple of local places that did not take cash, but in general my paper money was good. I had one amusing moment in a clothing shop where the guy had to open the till and rip open the bags of coins in order to give me change. I was, he explained, the only cash customer he had had that week. I know a few cash aficionados in the UK. Mostly they say they just like it (and as they don't work in cash-in-hand sectors and are not unbanked, I believe them). I have some sympathy for people who like the privacy and I am not a fan of 'If you've done nothing wrong, you have nothing to fear' arguments. On balance, I reckon businesses probably should take cash, although I get the risk of crime for retailers. Finally, cash has a proven record going back millennia. I was actually there for one of the early attempts at a cashless society. In the mid 1990s the magazine Management Today dispatched me to Swindon where an electronic cash card called Mondex was being tried out. In those long-ago days it was pretty amazing being able to buy a pint or pack of crisps with a card. As it turned out, the world was not ready for Mondex. In 1996 a spokesman told the Independent: 'I think people would like to be able to use their Mondex cards outside Swindon but there's no other place like it.' • Welcome to life in the towns without banks Plus ça change. I asked the teens what they made of a cash-first economy. The oldest, 19, said that he found it a bit annoying and preferred to use his phone: 'You remember this world; we don't.' The 18-year-old said she didn't really mind: 'It's a different vibe.' The 14-year-old pointed out that she was largely spending our money and didn't care whether it came from a phone or grubby notes. None of them seemed hugely inconvenienced. A final cash bonus came when I was robbed. I stopped on a sweltering Hanoi street and realised that my bag was open. 'Oh God,' said my wife. 'Those two women who brushed past you a second ago.' My wallet was gone and I had that moment of utter horror as I realised I was going to have to contact several banks from half a world away. A minute later a woman said: 'Excuse me did you drop this?' My wallet! I thanked her profusely, expecting the wallet to be empty but there had been no dong in it and the cards were all there. Without contactless, they were useless to opportunistic thieves. Now, I don't know whether or not the person who returned the wallet to me was the person who stole it (my wife thinks it was) but in a way I don't care: even if she was the thief, it was a very considerate thing to do. Better still, my two restaurant fivers, also pretty much useless in Vietnam, were still in there.
