In an exclusive interview with The Irish Post, a group of vets and veterinary specialists said that the pandemic has created a “dangerous” situation for their profession.
They said the pandemics “have led to an unprecedented number of unnecessary deaths in the UK” and said that many vets and vets’ assistants are not aware of the pandems “containment plan” and the “safety protocols” they need to follow.
“The fact that we’ve got the threat posed by Zika in the news is alarming,” said Dr. David McClellan, a senior lecturer at Newcastle University and a former chief executive of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice).
“What I have seen is that vets and veterinarians are being put at a disadvantage by their lack of information about the pandics risks.”
Dr. McClellans group of experts, who are based at St John’s Veterinary Hospital in the United Kingdom, are calling on the Government to act swiftly to prevent the spread of the virus to other countries.
In the interview, Dr. McClesnans said the British Government is failing to provide a full picture of the scope of the threat to veterinary services in the country and needs to make it clear that the virus is “not a risk to humans.”
The UK has the highest number of recorded cases of Zika in Europe.
According to the WHO, over 10,000 people have been infected in the U.K. alone.
According a recent report by the World Health Organization, the virus causes severe birth defects and can cause microcephaly, a birth defect in which a baby’s head is too small to pass through its skull.
It is estimated that the global number of cases of the disease could reach 1.5 million by the end of the year.
