PHE statement on incident in Amesbury

On July 4 2018, Public Health England (PHE) issued a statement on the major incident declared in Amesbury, which has resulted in one adult death and one further adult remaining critically ill in hospital, after exposure to the nerve agent novichok. It is not yet known whether the nerve agent came from the same batch used in an earlier contamination event in Salisbury (see current note 52/1006).

PHE confirm that the risk to the public is low. They will issue further information as and when it becomes available. As a highly precautionary measure, PHE recommend that people who visited five locations in the surrounding area wash any clothes and clean any other items they had with them.

Source: PHE, 4 July 2018