Dr. Josep Vidal-Alaball

EXPERT'S WARNING ON WARSHIP ILLNESS 02 September 2006 An expert in public health has warned that more potentially deadly illnesses on a front-line warship could follow after two further cases of active tuberculosis (TB) were diagnosed on a Westcountry-based vessel. The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has confirmed that five crew members of HMS Ocean, the Devonport-based amphibious helicopter carrier and assault ship, now have the infectious form of the disease after TB first emerged in May. The unidentified crewmen have been prescribed with up to six months of antibiotics to keep the life-threatening illness under control. The MoD last night said that all five cases of active TB were confined to the marine engineering department, which is responsible for mechanics and electrics. Fifty-five latent forms of the illness emerged on board following a screening process of the entire crew. The latent form produces no symptoms and is not contagious, as the bacteria are not active, although they ...

Eurosurveillance weekly releases 2006 > Volume 11 / Issue 9 J Vidal-Alaball ( Josep.Vidal-Alaball@nphs.wales.nhs.uk ), S Hayes, R Jones National Public Health Service for Wales, Health Protection Team, Mid and West Wales Region, Swansea, United Kingdom On 10 February 2004, the specialist respiratory nurse for a hospital in a city in South Wales alerted the local health authorities that Mycobacterium tuberculosis infections in a particular area of the city appeared to be higher than expected in a relatively young age group. All the cases were in patients who reported visiting a particular pub (bar) regularly. As a result of this alert, an outbreak investigation team compiled an initial list of six possible associated cases in five men and one woman who were aged between 25 and 55 years and all lived in the city. Initial interviews established that there were many shared social links between the patients, who were part of a network of regular drinkers at four pubs in a suburb of the ...