H5N1 - Britain prepares for 'mass burials' as bird-flu spreads

Bird flu has been found in poultry for the first time, around 2 months after being identified in wild birds. The authorities have put up a protection around the farm in Leipzig in the state of Saxony in an attempt to stop the spread of the virulent virus which has so far claimed 100 lives worldwide. Orders have also been given to destroy nearly 10,000 animals on the farm [BBC].
The H5N1 virus has also recently been found in the Czech republic, Israel’s west bank and Nigeria. As the threat of a global flu pandemic nears ever closer, a leaked government document has shown that up to 700,000 people could die in the UK as a result of such an outbreak. The report also outlines possible actions by the authorities such as quarantine zones and implementation of large scale vaccinations of Britain’s population. However the report highlighted how much the country was ill-prepared for such an eventuality. In a report published in the Scotsman this week the paper states that “the armed forces may not be available to help in an emergency because of Britain's extensive international military deployments.” The article also raised the risk that there may not be enough vaccine to combat the deadly virus. The document says that effective drugs "would not be available until at least four to six months after a pandemic had struck, which could be well after the first wave of illness in the UK". The Cabinet Office paper has been circulated only to "Category 1 responders" - emergency services chiefs, local authorities, NHS officials and others responsible for drawing up contingency plans. It details the preparations under way for a flu pandemic arising in a number of ways, including the mutation of the H5N1 virus among birds.
The document warns that, once such an infection arrived in Britain, it could take as little as two weeks to become widespread. Published in late February, it contains the latest updated projections for the spread of a "novel" form of the common flu virus to which people would have no immunity. The document declares a "prudent worst-case" death toll of 320,000. In such an event, the Home Office estimate that bodies could be stored for up to 18 weeks before being buried. But the paper accepts that the prospect of mass burial may cause public anxiety and says, "Common burial stirs up images of the burial pits used in the great plague of 1665 - where in London 70,000 people died." In fact, the mass burials envisaged would more closely resemble temporary sites used after major wars. The dead would be consigned to individual coffins and buried in discreet graves, with names clearly marked, in unconsecrated fields. A bleak prospect indeed.