A PENSIONER stricken with bird flu says he caught it while protecting himself from Covid – to protect his pet ducks.
Alan Gosling, 79, has barely left his home since the first lockdown in March 2020 because he feared a coronavirus infection would force him away from his herd.
But they were shot anyway and he said, “They were my close friends and I lost them. “
The grandfather, the first Briton to catch a deadly strain of bird flu, lived with 20 of the wild Muscovy ducks in his cottage by the river.
We shared yesterday how he was discovered to be suffering from bird flu when investigators swabbed him following his flock tested positive and was destroyed on New Years Day.
Lab tests show Alan is infected with the H5 strain of bird flu, most likely H5N1, but he is feeling well physically
Speaking regarding his isolation at his home in Buckfastleigh, Devon, the divorced father of three told The Sun: ‘I stayed because if I fell with Covid there would be no one to look following ‘them.
” It is only me. I thought they were going to die. Then they went ahead and said they would kill them all anyway.
Symptoms of bird flu:
Call a GP or NHS 111 if you have symptoms of bird flu and have visited an area affected by bird flu in the past 10 days.
The main symptoms of bird flu can appear very quickly and include:
- a very high temperature or a feeling of heat or chills
- sore muscles
- headache
- a cough or shortness of breath
Other early symptoms can include:
- diarrhea
- sickness
- Stomach pain
- chest pain
- bleeding from the nose and gums
- conjunctivitis
It usually takes three to five days for the first symptoms to appear following being infected.
In the days following the onset of symptoms, it is possible to develop more serious complications such as pneumonia and acute respiratory distress syndrome.
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