Exploding Entrails Blamed for Disease

April 24 -- A slaughterhouse worker who may have Britain's first human case of foot-and-mouth disease in decades may have caught it when a rotting carcass he was carrying exploded, spraying entrails into his mouth, the government said today.

"My understanding is that [the man] was moving a decomposing carcass of a cow and that carcass exploded and the fluid went into his mouth," a spokesman for Prime Minister Tony Blair told reporters.

But the spokesman emphasized that he only released the gruesome description to underline how unusual it was for a human to contract the disease. "I only say this to illustrate how highly unusual the circumstances were regarding this potential contraction," he said.

Two More Possible Cases

British authorities have yet to confirm that the man, who works in Cumbria, northwest England, has contracted the disease. But British authorities say he is showing "all the symptoms" exhibited by the cloven-hoofed animals infected by the disease — blisters on the hands and feet and inside the mouth.

The man, who has not been identified, underwent tests on Monday, but results are not expected for 48 hours. If it is foot-and-mouth, it would be the second human case ever diagnosed in Britain. The previous confirmed human case in Britain was in 1966.

Alarms were further raised today after a spokesman for the government's Public Health Laboratory Services told Reuters there were two more possible cases of human foot-and-mouth.

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The Laboratory Services office declined to give any detail on the two new suspected cases, including whether they were people who had been working with infected animals.

Since the beginning of the outbreak, there have been several other cases in which people showed symptoms of foot-and-mouth, authorities said. But none of them tested positive.

Reassuring the Public

British health authorities are now scrambling to reassure the public, as the disease sows turmoil across the famous British countryside and deters potential visitors from around the world.