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By Richard Woodman
LONDON, Mar 31 (Reuters Health) - Although rare, foot-and-mouth disease can infect humans, according to an old copy of the British Medical Journal that records how a 35-year-old man caught foot-and-mouth disease in 1966. The journal report was dug out of the archives on Monday as the current animal epidemic continued to spread remorselessly across the countryside.
The disease afflicts cloven-hoofed animals such as sheep, pigs and cows, causing sores and severe weight loss. In general, the disease poses no risk to humans.
Britain now has more than 600 confirmed outbreaks of foot-and-mouth and the virus has spread to France, the Netherlands and Ireland. No cases of human infection have been reported, but the BMJ case shows the possibility cannot be ruled out.
The report says the patient became ill in July 1966--six days after an outbreak of foot-and-mouth developed on the farm where he lived with his brother in Northumberland.
The man--now known to have been Mr Bobby Brewis--watched but took no part in the slaughter of the farm's animals on 24 July. However one of the affected animals was a cow that supplied milk used in the farmhouse.
"On 28th July he complained of a sore throat, which became worse on the 29th. On the 30th he had a temperature of 99 F (37.2 C), an inflamed throat, and a few blisters on the palms and dorsa of both hands.
"On 31st July his temperature was normal but the blisters on his hands had increased in number. There were two further blisters between his toes and five or six wheals on the side and front of his tongue.
"The patient described his lesions as uncomfortable and tingling, while the tongue was hot, tingling and sore." The blisters disappeared after several weeks only for a fresh set to develop a week later, and again after five months.
Mr. Brewis's daughter, Amanda, told The Times of London on Monday that her father's illness had mystified the medical profession. "He always knew he was a quirk of British medical history. In a way he was proud of it. He was a bit of a teaser and a prankster. He used to joke about how he must really be an animal."
Mr. Brewis, who died six years ago, was living at his farm in the hamlet of Yetlington on the edge of the Cheviot Hills during the 1966 outbreak.
The Department of Health made no immediate comment on the rare case.
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