Medic’s assurance after teenager suffers cowpox
ATEENAGER has been diagnosed with cowpox – an illness now so rare it hasn’t been seen in Wales for more than a decade.
The 15-year-old boy developed lesions on his hands after feeding calves.
Cowpox was more common in the 18th century, when milking maids often caught it. Public Health Wales said the last reported human case in Wales was around 10 to 15 years ago.
The virus has almost disappeared because fewer people milk cows by hand, thanks to industrial farming methods.
Nowadays it is very uncommon in both humans and animals, according to Public Health Wales, with feral cats most likely to catch it from rodents.
The teenager’s mother, who lives on the Wrexham-Cheshire border but who does not want to be identified, said the calves he had been feeding had nibbled on his hands, causing them to become grazed.
He then developed pus-filled lesions on his hands, arms and feet.
She told BBC Wales: “We were really unsure what it was. The one on his ankle was worrying – it was weeping a clear liquid down his ankle.”
After seeing their GP, they were sent straight to the Countess of Chester Hospital, where he was diagnosed with cowpox.
“I didn’t really know what it was, so I was quite concerned. The first thing you do is look on the internet and that’s when I found out it was quite rare,” she said.
“My son was quite embarrassed – it looked quite a mess. The lesions weren’t nice and it wasn’t pleasant for him. It took weeks and weeks to go, a long time. He still has some marks on his hands.”
Dr Aysha Javed – who diagnosed the boy – said it was the first case of cowpox she had seen.
She said: “I think the boy and his family were quite bemused when we told them – I don’t think they expected that to be the diagnosis.
“I think it was very itchy for him, but it wasn’t particularly painful.”
The teenager was diagnosed around three months ago, but his case came to light when Dr Javed and her colleagues alerted other medics to it during a recent European Society for Pediatric Dermatology annual meeting.
“We have to inform other colleagues about rare cases and, if it’s something that’s going to be reemerging, public health professionals need to be alerted,” she added.
“We don’t really see cowpox any more – it’s one of those diseases that went away.”
Dr Robert Smith, clinical scientist lead for Zoonoses (diseases of animals that can be passed to humans) at Public Health Wales, told the BBC cowpox had not been reported in Wales for 10 to 15 years. It is not contagious from person to person.
The British Association of Dermatologists said it was very useful for doctors and members of the public to be aware of “what we might consider historical diseases making a resurgence”.
“Cowpox is quite unusual and, as the doctors note, when you look at a pox-like rash on a child these days the first thing that tends to spring to mind is chicken pox,” a spokesman said.
“Although this resurgence is interesting, it’s not something that is particularly worrying, as cowpox tends to be benign in nature to otherwise healthy people.”