The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirmed four new cases of bird flu in Colorado on Sunday. The infected people all work on a poultry farm in the northeast of the state. So far, these positives bring to nine the total number of cases in the United States since the current outbreak of the H5N1 virus in humans was detected in 2022. Eight of the nine were reported this year.
The workers who tested positive this weekend were slaughtering infected poultry at a Colorado poultry farm when they began exhibiting mild symptoms, including pink eye and symptoms of common respiratory infections such as fever, chills, cough, sore throat and runny nose. None of the people were hospitalized, according to the state Department of Public Health and Environment. Samples from a fifth worker were presumptive positive at the state lab on Saturday, July 13, and are pending confirmation by the CDC.
The avian influenza virus has been spreading since 2020 among mammals — from dogs, cats, skunks, bears to even seals and porpoises — in dozens of countries, including the United States. Earlier this year, H5N1 was detected among U.S. cattle, and is now circulating in livestock in several states.
With these new cases, federal health officials continue to consider the threat to the public to be low because the virus has not been transmitted from person to person. “CDC’s current risk assessment for the general public remains low. As we learn more, we will continue to assess the situation and provide updates. These preliminary results once again underscore the risk of exposure to infected animals. Otherwise, there is no indication of unexpected increases in influenza activity in Colorado or other states affected by H5 avian influenza outbreaks in cattle and poultry,” they said in a statement.
However, the CDC stresses that human infections “are of concern because of their potential to cause severe disease” as well as “their pandemic potential.” “If these viruses were to change to spread easily from person to person, a pandemic could result, although to date we have not seen genetic changes in the virus that make it more likely to be transmitted between humans,” they add.
The first human case of bird flu in the country was reported in 2022: like the four cases confirmed this Sunday, at that time a Colorado poultry worker had direct contact with infected birds that were being slaughtered for it. Since that first positive case in humans, there have been Four more cases but due to exposure to dairy cows infected: one in Colorado, two in Michigan and one in Texas. So far, all the people who have tested positive have had mild symptoms.
As of last Friday, the H5N1 virus had been confirmed in 152 dairy herds in 14 states, According to data from the Department of Agriculture. Additionally, since January 2022, more than 99 million birds have been infected with the H5N1 virus or other types of avian influenza in 48 states, according to CDC reports.
#cases #bird #flu #confirmed #United #States