Teen infected with incredibly rare 18th Century cowpox disease

A British teenager has been infected with the incredibly rare cowpox virus, a disease more often seen in the Renaissance.

The 15-year-old boy broke out in red lesions on his hands, feet and arms after feeding calves on his family farm. Photos show excruciating pus-filled lumps on the teenager’s body caused by a virus which was more common in the 18th Century.

Medics said the teen, of the Wrexham-Cheshire border, had contracted cowpox – a virus so unusual that many doctors have never even come across it before in their careers. Public Health Wales say the last reported human case in Wales was 10 to 15 years ago. The boy’s mum, who says her son does not want to be named, said: ‘We were really unsure what it was.

Girl bullied after she cut off her hair in memory of brother who died from meningitis ‘The one on his ankle was worrying – it was weeping a clear liquid down his ankle.’ The teenager was sent straight to the Countess of Chester Hospital and diagnosed with cowpox after seeing his GP. His mum said: ‘I didn’t really know what it was, so I was quite concerned. The first thing you do is look on the internet and that’s when I found out it was quite rare.

‘My son was quite embarrassed – it looked quite a mess, the lesions weren’t nice and it wasn’t pleasant for him. ‘It took weeks and weeks to go, a long time. He still has some marks on his hands.’ Dr Aysha Javed, who diagnosed the teenager, said it was the first case of cowpox she had ever seen. Dr Javed said: ‘I think the boy and his family were quite bemused when we told them – I don’t think they expected that to be the diagnosis. ‘I think it was very itchy for him but it wasn’t particularly painful.’ Cowpox was often caught by milking maids in the 18th Century, and the virus, which is not contagious from person to person, has almost disappeared because so few people milk cows by hand today.

The boy’s mother said the calves he had been feeding had nibbled on his hands causing them to become grazed and expose his blood to the contagion about three months ago. His case came to light when Dr Javed and her colleagues alerted other medics to it during a recent European Society for Pediatric Dermatology annual meeting.

Dr Javed said: ‘We have to inform other colleagues about rare cases and, if it’s something that’s going to be re-emerging, public health professionals need to be alerted. ‘We don’t really see cowpox anymore – it’s one of those diseases that went away.’ A British Association of Dermatologists spokesman said: ‘Although this resurgence is interesting, it’s not something that is particularly worrying as cowpox tends to be benign in nature to otherwise healthy people.’

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