Report on orf will be a first

Press, 9 March 1982, Page 7

Report on orf will be a first

The Health Department has completed a study of orf, the disease caught by humans, from sheep infected with scabby mouth, and its report will be the first complete and authoritative study of orf in the world. The deputy director (occupational health) of the department’s Division of Public Health, Dr John Stoke, said that a team in the department, working with the veterinary faculty of Massey University, had just completed the field work throughout New Zealand, and the report would be published in May. “Our policy is to keep under review all occupational health problems, and our chief priority is agricultural health,” he said.

When the report was completed it would outline the incidence of orf in New Zealand, how humans are infected, and recommendations for the treatment and prevention of the disease. One of the first outbreaks in New Zealand was in 1956, when five people were affected in a virus research

department. The outbreak was reported in the “New Zealand Medical Journal.” The Health Department’s annual report to Parliament has not named the disease in the past. It has been classified in the same group as two other more common diseases affecting agricultural workers, leptospirosis and brucellosis, but has been put under the heading ■ "other.” In 1974, only two cases of orf were reported. In 1975, there were five. In 1978, 47 cases were reported, followed by 68 in 1979, 121 in 1980, and a similar number last year. Dr Stoke said that the increase in the number of cases reported did not necessarily mean that more people were being affected. It could reflect a growing awareness of the disease and better recognition of its symptoms. Orf usually infects humans through cuts or abrasions usually on the hands touching sheep infected with scabby mouth. After an incubation period of 10 to 14 days, a

small white blister develops, enlarges, and fills with fluid. In most cases it gradually disappears in the next three to six weeks. The ' Health Department official warned in an article in the “New Zealand Journal of Agriculture” in 1964 of the danger of humans getting the virus from sheep affected by scabby mouth, and advised people handling diseased sheep to wear rubber gloves or wash their hands frequently. The International Labour Organisations’s “Guide to Health and Hygiene in Agricultural Work” describes orf as' contagious ecthyma. It recommends disinfection of abrasions and cuts after infected sheep have been handled and the use of protective gloves and clothing, to prevent catching the disease. Vaccine can be. used to prevent the spread of the disease among sheep in a flock on the farm, but the 1.L.0. guide says it is not appropriate for humans because it produces similar effects as the disease itself.