Doctors and scientists remain to be perplexed by a new virus that continues to spread rapidly across the UK. Reported cases so far have identified teenagers as the sole victims, who suffer from a severe allergic reaction to skin to skin contact, resulting in a rash which appears to be highly contagious, and in some cases, fatal. Postmortem results are currently being awaited on the 12 known fatalities so far, but doctors caution the public to stay away from crowded spaces and to practise good hand hygiene, as the cause of the outbreak has not yet been identified.
The World Health Organisation remains vigilant, with similar outbreaks being reported across Europe, the US, Canada and parts of Asia. Scientists continue to work on identifying the pathogen, and caution parents to keep children over 12 years old at home and isolated wherever possible. The government's emergency committee, Cobra, have met and are putting in place a response to the outbreak reaching pandemic levels.
Now over to our science correspondent, Michael Cliff, with more details...
Dialogue,
You know Michael, the one from Maths? He fell into someone at the park last night, have you heard from him? I called him, he didn’t call me back. what if he’s got it? Serves him right really, he was always pissing about in class.


