Reports Humans May Have Cattle Virus Scare Brits

Britain battled on new fronts in the foot-and-mouth crisis Wednesday as news that humans may have been infected sparked fresh health worries and dealt a blow to a campaign to woo back nervous tourists.

Health officials were investigating two more suspected cases of human infection, 24 hours after a slaughterhouse worker who was sprayed with the entrails from a burst animal carcass became the first suspected victim of the disease here in 34 years. Test results are not expected before next week.

“Obviously, this news . . . damages Britain’s image abroad,” a British Tourist Authority spokeswoman said.

The lurid tale of how the slaughterhouse worker, who had been dealing with infected livestock in northern England, may have contracted the disease will not make pleasant reading for would-be visitors.

He was “moving a decomposing carcass of a cow and that carcass exploded and the fluid went into his mouth,” Prime Minister Tony Blair’s spokesman said.

“The few cases that there have been in human patients have all been a relatively mild flu-like illness with some ulcerations in the mouth and on the hands. The patients have recovered relatively quickly,” said Brian Duerden, a spokesman for Public Health Laboratory Services.