Q fever report criticises government

The previous government made serious mistakes in its approach to the goat and sheep disease Q fever, according to an official report into the crisis.


The health and farm ministries did not make it clear enough what risks people ran of developing Q fever and what they could do to prevent the spread, the report says.
It was not until 2009 that ‘decisions were taken at high speed’ even though the number of cases of Q fever had been going up since 2007, the report says.
Last year 2,354 people were diagnosed with the disease and six people died.
At the end of last year, the government announced a cull of some 40,000 goats in an effort to eradicate the disease.

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