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font class="post"1b,121b,121HEY LET'S BE CAREFUL OUT THEREb,121 img src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d8/Bongo.jpg"1Quote:/font1h,121b,121KILLED BY ANTHRAX FROM HIS BONGOS By Maggie Barry 17/08/2006 b,121b,121Infected animal hides gave drum maker rare disease[/b]b,121b,121b, 21AN artist who made bongo drums with imported animal skins died of anthrax, health officials revealed yesterday.b,121b,121b,121b,121Self-employed Christopher Norris, 50, is the first victim of the disease in the UK for 32 years.b,121And last night health authorities said others were still at risk - as they quarantined and boarded up Mr Norris's home.b,121b,121b,121b,121Family and friends who have been in recent contact or visited the house in the Scottish Borders were being interviewed.b,121Ten people are being given medical treatment "as a precaution". Health officials are trying to trace another 20.b,121b,121b,121b,121It is feared Mr Norris picked up anthrax from animal hide he used to make his drums.b,121b,121b,121A Health Protection Scotland spokesman said: "His home has been sealed and is being investigated for risk of anthrax spores in the environment.b,121"Anyone who visited it after July 17 should contact the NHS.b,121b,121b,121b,121If they experience flu-like symptoms, dry cough or unusual skin lesions they should seek further medical advice."b,121b,121b,121Mr Norris, a gifted craftsman known as Pascal, fell ill last month. He died on July 8 in Edinburgh Royal Infirmary after developing septicaemia.b,121b,121b,121b,121Family and friends had no inkling of anthrax and held a wake at his home on July 17.b,121b,121b,121The house has a workshop where he made musical instruments and other artefacts with materials including imported hides. His ashes were scattered there at another get-together on July 29.b,121b,121b,121b,121Meanwhile doctors concerned at how Mr Norris's illness developed sent samples for testing at labs at Porton Down in Wiltshire.b,121b,121On August 11 they were told his death had been caused by the rare pulmonary anthrax which he had contracted by inhaling spores.b,121b,121b,121Health officials later decided to go public because they wanted to trace everyone who had been in Mr Norris's home recently. NHS Borders medical chief Ross Cameron said: "Immediate action has been taken and the property secured.b,121b,121b,121b,121"There is no risk to the general public because there is no personal transmission of the disease."b,121The 10 being treated had all been in the house in the past six weeks and were being given antibiotics.b,121b,121None have reported symptoms which could indicate infection.b,121b,121b,121b,121b,121One of them is a close personal friend who spent time at the dying man's hospital bedside. The others are understood to have been at the wake at his home. The last human death from anthrax in the UK was in 1974. Leading bacteriologist Prof Hugh Pennington said: "It is very rare for people to get infected."b,121b,121b,121b,121But he added: "If this man was working with imported animal hides that had anthrax, then that makes sense. The spores could have been on the skin and he could have breathed them in."b,121b,121b,121b,121Mr Norris, a Buddhist who beat leukaemia four years ago, is survived by his mother and brother.b,121b,121b,121He lived on his own in his isolated cottage at Stobs, near Hawick in Roxburghshire.b,121b,121b,121b,121b,121b,121Last night a police van was outside the house and officers were stopping people going in.b,121b,121b,121b,121h,121
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