wheels wrote:...Serious worry, or press scaremongering?
Phil
Try government fear-mongering? There's too little information about the study to draw any opinions, other than that the sample was very small and we know nothing about it. To draw conclusions and government advisories off of such a small sample seems questionable, to me.
Things we know about HEV:
- the mortality rate is !% or less among all symptomatic patients, according to the CDC.
- depending on the region, anywhere from 2-15 times as many patients with HEV have no symptoms.
- reported cases in the US are MUCH lower than in the UK, on a per capita basis.
- a high percentage of the US population has antibodies for HEV, suggesting that it is very common, and the vast majority of us who eat sausage are still here.
Scientists caution that the actual risk in the UK is more like 1% of sausages, not 10% as concluded by a very small study. Since not everyone exposed to the risky sausage contracts the virus, the actual risk is less than 1%. Of that less than 1%, somewhere between 1.6% and 50% will be symptomatic, and of that very small number, less than 1% of those who are symptomatic are at risk of a fatal case. It should also be noted that there is a risk of infection from fresh fruits and vegetables in the UK, that have been sprayed with infected water, so there is a risk of HEV from water, too. So, some of the reported cases are not from pork, suggesting that the risk from pork is even lower than reported.
So, gosh, HEV can be contracted from meat, fruits, vegetables and drinking water, and we should make sure our pork is properly cooked. IMHO, the risk is extremely low, and we should not incinerate our sausages, just in case.