UK warns to avoid pig consumption after deaths from rare disease. Three people in Cornwall, United Kingdom have passed away from a rare strain of the liver disease Hepatitis E, with another 55 middle age and elderly in Devon and Cornwall who have been stricken by the disease. Although Hepatitis E is typically associated with unsanitary conditions encountered in foreign travel, Dr. Harry Dalton, a consultant gastroenterologist at Royal Cornwall Hospital Trust stated, “Not only had the patients not travelled abroad, but they didn't fit the normal age range for the virus. In other parts of the world it usually affects the young. However in the cases being seen in the UK, it is the middle aged and elderly, particularly men.”

Dr. Dalton believes that the main cause of this viral strain is contact with raw pig meat and thus has joined other scientists in launching a two-year investigative study. The nation’s Health Protection Agency has meanwhile issued a warning on its website, saying that pigs and pig meat can be the breeding grounds of such disease and may also be its cause in patients who have not travelled abroad.

We send sympathies to the families of loved ones lost to this illness as we also pray for the recovery of those who have fallen ill. May such tragic outcomes cease as humanity turns away from consuming animal products and instead adopts the humane and hygienic plant-based diet to ensure the health of ourselves and future generations.