COVID, Flu, Bundibugyo Ebolavirus, Plague, H5N1, UK COVID Inquiry and Other Virus and Health UK and World News Update 23rd October 2026
Flu and COVID in the UK are both still rising, but from a very low start, so flu is baseline and COVID is low.
In the UK and US the beginning of flu season has arrived earlier than usual. This is a repeat of last year, which turned out to be mild overall, so it’s not necessarily a sign of bad things to come. There is a newish flu strain which may escape past some previous immunity, but so far it's really not possible to say where this will go, but it doesn't seem to be worrying medical folk online. Good idea to get your jabs promptly though... if you can...
I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that flu vaccine availability was facing a logjam and there may be some delays. Superdrug last week announced their UK supplies were all designated and they won't be accepting any more bookings.
Norovirus has had a wild couple of days. This quick onset tummy bug led to a Rhodes to Düsseldorf flight making a 'mass casualty' medical landing on Sunday, with 3 people transported to hospital. That must have been a fun flight. In a different outbreak 95 children were infected at an elementary school in Kansas - I'm not sure which is worse, the kids or the plane...
So that's your reminder - wash your hands often, stay at home if you are ill, and definitely don't cook for anyone else.
The UK COVID Inquiry has released the report for module 6 - CARE. They found that COVID-times Health Secretary Matt Hancock’s claim he had 'a protective ring around care homes' was “unfounded”. Chairwoman Baroness Heather Hallett said “Quite the opposite was true.”
Matt Hancock made the claim in May 2020, before sending thousands of care home residents who had been discharged from hospital back home without testing them for COVID, or advising they be quarantined, in many cases to then infect fellow residents. Over 43,000 people died in care homes between March 2020 and July 2022.
The inquiry found care homes felt like prisons, and the residents and staff felt abandoned. Being unable to see loved ones had a devastating effect, causing "enormous harm", including rapid decline in patients with dementia.
Protecting the NHS “sometimes came at the expense of the users and providers of care”.
The Inquiry has made recommendations, which can be found online by searching 'UK COVID Inquiry'. In short, they fall under these headings:
1. Improved pandemic planning for the adult social care sector
2. Enable the safe and timely isolation of care home residents, including following discharge from hospital
3. Financial support to adult social care staff to self-isolate or to limit working across multiple sites
4. Visiting restrictions should be the least restrictive possible, considering individual circumstances
5. Maintaining regulatory oversight of care quality and safety in a public health emergency
6. Collection of data about deaths of adult social care workers during a pandemic
7. Mandatory end-of-life care training for health and social care professionals
8. A voluntary workforce register for adult social care workers
A UK nurse who was enrolled on the trial for the AstraZeneca jab is among 604 people rejected for Vaccine Injury Compensation because they fall below the 60% disability threshold. She developed a rare neurological condition which left her unable to use her hands.
The UK Covid Inquiry has recommended urgent reform to the vaccine injury compensation system, saying it is no longer fit for purpose. They want the maximum £120,000 raised and linked to inflation for future increases, tiered awards by injury severity, and transitional fairness between the current and any new scheme.
I agree. I've said many times, if you give enough people anything at all then some will become ill and some will die. When it is a vaccine and for the benefit of the whole community we then really need to be incredibly grateful and sorry, and look after those people and their loved ones.
The Government responded officially to the COVID Inquiry recommendations, and have basically said they agree more needs to be done and they'll be looking into it...
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) Bundibugyo Ebola situation is grim, and although it's still no current threat to just about anyone reading this, it has taken a couple of turns for the worse. As of 21st October 2026, the DRC has reported a total of 9,704 confirmed cases, including 4,687 related deaths (from data up until 20th October). It is not under control, and it is still far ahead of the medics, scientists and officials attempting to rein it in. There are now confirmed cases in 8 of the 26 provinces of the DRC.
Last report I told you a Kenyan national had travelled by car and plane across DRC, by car over the border into Uganda, then by plane into Kenya, where he was met by relatives. They took him to hospital where he died from Ebola within 48 hours. Sadly at latest count he has passed Ebola on to at least 8 other known contacts who were already isolating - 4 are his relatives, 3 are healthcare workers and the other is a hospital cleaner. All 8 are reportedly doing well. 134 of his 135 known contacts have been traced and quarantined, there are no new people needing to quarantine, and at this time we can be realistically hopeful any further spread outside this group may have been prevented. However...
We also have a first Ebola patient in Nigeria. The wife of a Swiss diplomat accompanied her husband on a 2 week trip to Uganda, and became ill on 7th October, 2 days after flying home. She sought medical care on 11th, visiting 2 hospitals before being diagnosed on 20th.
Contacts are being traced and quarantined, and the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention has activated its incident management system to coordinate response.
Swiss authorities have clarified she did NOT visit DRC, so there are questions about how she was exposed. The usual incubation for Bundibugyo Ebolavirus is 4-10 days, but 2 to 21 days is possible.
Ugandan officials are adamant there is NO Ebola in Uganda, however tracing has discovered she was at Uganda's main Entebbe Airport at the same time as the first Kenyan patient on 3rd October, although it's not known if they actually crossed paths. Authorities are now desperately trying to find out if she caught Ebola from her time in Uganda, from a flight, from the first Kenyan patient, or even if she and the Kenyan patient both caught it at the airport.
The Nigerian patient was reported to have multi-organ failure, but at latest update is said to be showing signs of improvement.
Obviously in light of the new Ebola cases Government officials worldwide have acted, with the US one of the first to issue travel advisories for Kenya, and require all incoming travellers to sign a declaration about exposure and travel. Neighbouring Ghana has strengthened border checks and will monitor travellers from affected areas for 21 days. If you are expecting to visit Africa at any time soon, please check restrictions and quarantines before you travel.
A 6th unvaccinated person has died from measles in Pennsylvania.
The official US CDC webpage reports 4,588 measles cases this year, and just 3 deaths. It doesn't tell us where these deaths are, so it’s unknown if they're even all in Pennsylvania. 10% (479 of 4,588 cases) have been hospitalised. Only 2% of people infected have been fully vaccinated (2 doses MMR).
RFK Jr’s staff aide vs journalist:
Reporter: Has the war had an impact on your campaign at this point?
Staffer: We’re not going to talk about that.
Reporter: Mr. Secretary, do you believe that 5 deaths, potentially 6, from measles in the state of Pennsylvania...
Staffer: We’re also not going to talk about measles.
RFK Jr: I'm happy to...
Reporter to Staffer: He’s the highest ranking health official in the country. He can answer that question. He’s a Cabinet secretary.
RFK JR: The measles outbreak is occurring because so many people went unvaccinated during the COVID pandemic. And this is something that Anthony Fauci, in fact, predicted
Well done that journalist, about time. A somewhat surprising very pro-vaccine reply there from RFK Jr, however not actually true - all of the people getting measles in the US are not aged 6-8. He went on to imply COVID had shut down vaccinations, it didn’t, and it's been 6 years - plenty of time to catch up any vaccines you missed during restrictions.
Meanwhile across the world in Bangladesh, their measles outbreak is still ongoing and utterly horrific. They have now reported over 202,000 cases (22,000 lab confirmed) and 1,147 deaths since the outbreak began in mid-March. 94% of the fatalities are children under age 5, who missed their measles jabs due to a failure by an incoming new Government to arrange purchase and delivery of vaccinations. A mass immunisation campaign in mid April with assistance from WHO vaccinated over a million children. During the whole of 2025 Bangladesh reported just 125 measles cases.
The US has reported it's first newly confirmed case of H5N1 bird flu in a human since February 2025. The patient worked with infected dairy cows in Yakima County in Washington State, so it's pretty clear how they caught it. They have mild symptoms and have been isolating at home.
Bird flu is heading to the Northern hemisphere now, as migrating birds are on the move and sadly spreading it as they go.
By latest US APHIS figures there have been 25 US flocks affected in the last 30 days (10 commercial and 15 backyard), and 14 dairy herds have been confirmed infected in the last 30 days (in Washington, Kansas and Texas).
So far 2 UK farms have reported H5N1 Avian Flu infections this season (October to October). One is commercial backyard poultry on the Isle of Lewis, Scotland (2nd October) and the other a commercial premises in Belford, Northumberland (19th October) - where over 1,000 of their 32,000 hens died within the first 48 hours.
As of yesterday Australia had detected 720 confirmed events of H5 bird flu in wildlife, and vaccination of rare wild bird species in the Southern hemisphere continues. In Tasmania workers from the Department of Natural Resources and the Environment (NRE Tas) will spend 3-4 weeks on the remote Albatross Island in the Bass Strait, hand vaccinating nesting Shy Albatross with the 2 doses needed for full protection. There are believed to be only 15,000 pairs of the birds, around 100 of which will be vaccinated. This is a pilot study, and the more successful it is, the more birds are likely to be vaccinated in future. Fingers crossed.
Politico are reporting that earlier this year the USDA (US Department of Agriculture) had drafted a strategy to vaccinate farmed poultry against H5N1 Avian Influenza. The plans were to be shared with US farming leaders and internationally, but they shelved the entire thing after Head of Health and Human Services RFK Jr expressed criticism of the idea.
RFK Jr has on several occasions suggested that it'll be better for birds to develop natural immunity to avian flu, despite the fact Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) such as H5N1 has an almost 100% fatality rate in poultry, it is a cruel way to die, and for the rare survivors no immunity is passed on to later generations. In short, a chicken's 'natural immunity to H5N1' would be about as effective as natural immunity to 100mph car crashes.
In better news regarding H5 Avian Flu strains, there is some evidence that population immunity may be emerging in Alaskan polar bears. Back in 2013 when bears were tested, they had no antibodies to H5N1 or H5N5, or even to any Flu A strains. By 2023/2024 testing of blood in a lab did show antibodies for 11 out of 13 bears tested, suggesting they've previously been exposed, and built immunity rather than succumbing to severe illness.
WHO publicly asked Russia for further information regarding the worker who died from "pneumonia of undetermined etiology" and received a report from Russia last week.
The official report says "the patient and all identified contacts were tested for a broad range of pathogens, including influenza, SARS-CoV-2, other respiratory infections, and bacterial infections (including plague and streptococcus)". All results (over 5,500) were reportedly negative for high-threat pathogens, and the fatality was not due to plague infection. The employee had been vaccinated against the high-threat pathogens with which they worked and had not travelled outside of Irkutsk Oblast during the two weeks prior to symptom onset. All follow-up activities were completed without identifying additional cases.
The missing information is her cause of death, which is still unknown. Clearly she did not feel she was at risk or a risk to others, because she went home, got sicker and then went to a regular hospital. Occasionally Governments lie or cover things up, and occasionally people do simply develop pneumonia and die for completely unknown reasons - even previously young, fit and healthy people.
Angie Rasmussen has a fantastic article on this on Substack, including (her Russian-speaking husband) translating the Russian patient's mother's interview.
The Shamonda virus has been detected for the first ever time in a human, in a severely immuno-compromised person in France. The gentleman is now deceased, and the official cause is Encephalitis caused by Shamonda.
Shamonda is an animal disease which was first detected in the 1960's, usually affects livestock such as cattle, and is spread by biting midges. Outbreaks generally occur in Africa or Asia, but this year a new strain has appeared and quickly spread across Europe, including in France, Jersey, Southern Germany, Austria, Belgium, The Netherlands and Switzerland. The virus is usually non-fatal to livestock, but severe cases can affect the brain and cause death, and it is very dangerous for pregnancies.
In over 60 years no human has ever been known to catch Shamonda, so investigation is underway to find out how and why it has infected this human patient. One case is a random one-off event, and they will always occur. The gentlemen's severe immunity problems made him especially vulnerable, but obviously there are some concerns, especially as this is a new Euro-Shamonda strain and we really don't have a lot to go on.
Not a virus, but remember the New World Screwworm reached the US back in June? It has been pretty quiet, however it seems to have ramped up a little and officials have confirmed the first infection in wildlife. A Texan elk killed by a hunter had the parasite. The first detection in a fly trap was also discovered in the last 30 days (Texas, 25th Sept), as well as infections in domestic goats, cattle, a horse and a dog in Texas, and cattle and a horse in New Mexico. The infection zone has been updated and wildlife surveillance is underway.
Since the first US detection on 3rd June there have been domestic animals confirmed infected at 47 Texan premises across 18 counties.
So far there have been 62 reported detections of infected premises or animals in the US (60 domestic, 1 wildlife, 1 fly trap).
In Gorakhpur, India around 450 villagers have visited doctors requesting rabies jabs. They all drank milk, including a milk-based Durga Puja festival drink, from a cow that died after a suspected dog bite. The dog tested positive for rabies.
Rabies is primarily carried in saliva and nervous tissue in the brain and spinal cord, and has occasionally been found in other body fluids like tears. It has never been found in milk, and isn't present in blood, urine or poo. Although it could theoretically be possible to catch rabies from milk, including human milk, it's never been known, so the advice from WHO and other authorities is NOT to have precautionary rabies jabs, but you should probably avoid milk from infected animals as a precaution...
Hurrah! Finally saying the quiet part out loud. Good news / bad news. The New York Times has an article comparing repeatedly catching COVID to playing Long COVID roulette.
"... there is no such thing as a risk-free case."
We already know this, but it’s good to see reminders in mainstream media. It's clear and succinctly put here that each time you catch COVID, however mild it is, you risk developing Long COVID or having current symptoms worsen.
"Every time there's a wave, there's another wave that's going to follow with patients developing new onset Long COVID."
Akiko Iwasaki, Immunologist at Yale University.
Well, they may not have formally okayed the WHO Pandemic Agreement yet, but the UN General Assembly have thankfully adopted the global 'declaration on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response'. There were 153 for and 3 against - Argentina, US and Israel. New Zealand and Paraguay abstained (New Zealand for upcoming elections reasons). Once they finalise negotiations over wording on the "Pathogen Access and Benefit Sharing system (PABS) annex" of the Pandemic Agreement, it can be opened for signature, begin the process of ratification and enter into force as international law.
When another new pandemic comes along, will the nations of the world keep to their promises about sharing knowledge, vaccines and treatments? I hope so...
It is the weekend - hurrah! My partner is back from a week in London and while he was away my youngest and I dismantled an entire internal house wall, so I'm very ready to relax into the weekend - after a trip to the tip. We have an amber weather warning, so we'll be spending this weekend mostly staring at the shed roof, and then it's back to school on Monday. Fingers crossed for everyone that the forecasted UK storms don't do, or haven't done, much damage, and that the parents among you have had a good Autumn break from school. I hope you've planned something nice for yourself, you have definitely earnt it. I shall be back in 2 weeks time, until then...
Wear A Hat, Keep Warm, Save The NHS...
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https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/
https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/
UK Health Data
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https://www.cdc.gov/bird-flu/situation-summary/index.html
Measles Sit Rep US CDC
https://www.cdc.gov/measles/data-research/index.html
UK cases Measles
Canada Measles
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Clear the windscreen, an extra 5 minutes can make all the difference TrafficScot
Eligible for flu jab UK Winter 2026
COVID Inquiry response image COVID Bereaved Families for Justice
Alzheimer’s Research is a UK priority image
People are more than a mental health diagnosis WHO
World Mental Health Day WHO image
Kenya Ebola spread explainer
Nigeria Ebola patient image better
Shamonda WHO
Images CHARTS UK HSA Flu and COVID
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Flu 2026 Autumn
Superdrug out of flu vaccines
Superdrug no more bookings
Mass casualty Norovirus flight
Norovirus school 95 kids
Baroness Hallett video UK COVID Inquiry
UK COVID Inquiry findings care homes
Covid Inquiry 43,000 care home deaths sacrifices
UK COVID Inquiry module 6 CARE recommendations
Story vaccine injury compensation
Vaccine injury compensation story
UK Gov response COVID Inquiry vaccine injury
Latest Ebola DRC figures:
Travel advisories for Kenya - US 'reconssider travel'.
Ghana travel from affected Ebola areas
Nigeria Ebola patient
Nigeria ministry of health - woman arrived on flight from Uganda
Nigeria Bundibugyo
Diplomat, or wife of, has Ebola
First Nigeria and Kenya Ebola patients may have crossed paths at Uganda airport
8 cases Kenya Ebola
7 cases information with images of MOH letter
7 cases Ebola Kenya with image MOH sit rep
https://x.com/MOH_Kenya/status/2111485445687103998
third case of Ebola (Bundibugyo virus disease) has been confirmed in Kenya. The patient was already in quarantine and is receiving care. There is no evidence of community transmission
3 ebola Kenya
Kenya Patients now at 9 including index case.
Ebola in Kenya: Is it under control as nine cases confirmed? - BBC News
Includes map of Kenyan Ebola patient's journey amd hospital cleaner positive .
https://x.com/MOH_Kenya/status/2112562389614723282
2nd Bundibugyo Ebolavirus victim in Kenya
MOH Kenya
https://x.com/MOH_Kenya/status/2110380914471841896
Ebola so far ahead of us
6th measles death Pennsylvania
RFK Jr aide vs reporter footage
https://x.com/Acyn/status/2110817953671467070
‘He’s a Cabinet Secretary!’ Reporter Snaps At RFK Jr. Aide Trying to Stop Question on Measles Deaths
Most of the people getting measles in the US are either unvaccinated adults born years before the pandemic or babies who were born years after.
US CDC Measles deaths needs clarity
Unbiasedscipod measles Bangladesh
Bangladesh measles April
Human case of bird flu confirmed in Yakima County; person was exposed to infected cows
'Just a carpet of dead birds' - first England farmer hit by bird flu this season - BBC News
Shy albatross colony on remote Tasmanian island to receive bird flu vaccine in complex operation - ABC News
Latest situation Australia
It's time to get a vaccine in place’: RFK Jr.’s views helped stall bird flu plan - POLITICO
HPAI 100% Mortality in poultry
Evidence for exposure to and infection with H5 clade 2.3.4.4b highly pathogenic avian influenza viruses among polar bears inhabiting Alaska - ScienceDirect
Pneumonia of undetermined etiology - the Russian Federation
Angie Rasmussen Pneumonia of unknown origin Russia
As a scientist, here’s what worries me about the suspected Russian plague victim | Devi Sridhar | The Guardian
Deadly Shamonda virus detected in human for first time in France | The Independent
Shamonda virus European dairy cattle
Shamonda UK NFU
Shamonda 1st human
Shamonda virus with images WHO
Eurosurveillance | Fatal encephalitis caused by Shamonda virus Europe 1 (SHAV-EU1) in a patient with a severely weakened immune system, France
New World Screwworm in Texas Elk
USDA NWS infection in Elk
NWS Texas
NWS N.Mexico
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Rabies, spread by milk?
Theoretically possible, has never happened
Rabies factsheet - transmission
Rabies probably not spread by milk
Rabies milk drink India
NYT compares catching COVID repeatedly to playing long COVID roulette
Repeated COVID screenshot quote
Let this sink in—The UN has adopted a new global pandemic preparedness declaration, approving it with a vote of 153–3… however, the only countries to vote “No” were US, Israel and Argentina. Even Russia, North Korea, China, Iran, and Yemen voted with the rest of the world.
General Assembly adopts pandemic declaration, but not by consensus
WHO welcomes adoption of United Nations political declaration on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response
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