Is the Risk From Bird Flu Rising?#americanscientist #sciencefather

 Recent reports of the first “severe” human case of bird flu in the U.S. are raising concerns among public health experts as to the potential long-term health threat the virus could pose for the public the longer it continues to circulate throughout the country.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently confirmed a Louisiana patient was hospitalized with a severe case of the H5N1 strain of influenza after being around sick and dead birds in backyard flocks, marking the first such case involving exposure to a backyard flock in the U.S.

The case is the latest in an upsurge in virus activity this year. Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced it would order the testing of all raw, unpasteurized milk under federal order for bird flu in response to a large outbreak among dairy cows that was first detected in March and has since been found in nearly 900 herds across 16 states as of Dec. 20.

The vast majority of bird flu cases involving livestock have been in California with more than 650 cases, a situation that prompted Gov. Gavin Newsom on Dec. 18 to declare a state of emergency in response.

“This proclamation is a targeted action to ensure government agencies have the resources and flexibility they need to respond quickly to this outbreak,” Newsom said in a statement.

In all, 61 confirmed human cases of H5N1 have been reported in the U.S., as of Dec. 20, according to the CDC, compared to zero cases in 2023. Aside from one case in 2022, no human cases of bird flu had been reported in the U.S. based on records going back as far as 1997, according to the CDC.

Despite the spike in cases, experts say the threat to the public remains low, as there has been no evidence of the virus spreading between humans, limiting the amount of opportunities the general public could be exposed.

“People that don’t work with animals – whether they’re cattle or with birds – are probably not at risk because it does not spread from human to human,” says Dr. Aaron Glatt, chair of the Department of Medicine at Mount Sinai South Nassau Hospital in New York and a spokesman for the Infectious Diseases Society of America. “From an individual, personal risk, at this point it’s extremely low.”

Yet from a public health perspective, Glatt, as well as Dr. Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health, agreed that there always remains the potential for the virus to evolve into one that can spread from person to person and that the risk of that occurring increases the longer animals and humans are at risk of coming into contact with the disease.

Event Title: American Scientists Award 

Website Link: americanscientists.org

Nominate now

Contact: contact@americanscientists.org 

Social Media Link ------------------ 

Facebook: www.facebook.com/home.php

 

Twitter: x.com/compose/post 

Blogger: www.blogger.com/blog/posts/1070161210350257070

Pinterest: in.pinterest.com/americanscientists