Weils disease....potential health hazard

[kevin wooldridge]

I remember a few years back a colleague seeking medical treatment after developing worrying symptoms of encephalitis. After extensive tests it appeared that he had previously (and unbeknown to him at the time) contracted leptospirosis and part of his subsequent ailment might have been a result of damage that the original incidence of Weils Disease had inflicted..... I hear reports from friends who have worked in tropical climes that the same recurrent and subsequent effect can be caused to individuals who have contracted malaria and dengue fever, often unaware of their original infection or having passed it off as 'summer flu'... Do any archaeological employers still carry out pre-employment health assessments of employees, especially where they might be working on sites where risks of zoonotic infection or contaminants might be particularly high.

I once had to provide a blood sample and be examined to make sure I had been innoculated against smallpox before being allowed to take part in a cemetery excavation (I think the blood test was to establish pre-exisiting lead levels) and back in the late 80s the Museum of London arranged free tetanus innoculation for anyone who thought they needed a booster injection. Have such precautions been sacrificed to the modern day gods of economy?