America informed this First serious human case of bird flu A Louisiana resident was hospitalized in critical condition on Wednesday after suspected contact with an infected backyard flock.
California, the most populous state, declared an emergency over the H5N1 virus as it spreads more widely in dairy herds and after it gets infected Dozens of farm laborers this year.
Federal and state officials have failed to control the country’s outbreak, which first infected dairy cattle in 2024, because some farmers resist testing and containment measures.
The severe respiratory illness in the Louisiana patient suggests an increased health risk to people from the virus, which previously caused eye redness, or conjunctivitis, in infected dairy workers.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said bird flu still represents a low risk to the general public.
The CDC has confirmed 61 human cases nationally since April, mostly in workers on dairy farms where the virus has infected cattle.
Employees who killed infected chickens have also been found positive.
The patient in Louisiana is suffering from severe respiratory illness, the Louisiana Department of Health said in a statement.
The man is reported to have underlying medical conditions and is over the age of 65, putting the patient at high risk, the department said.
The case is the first linked to backyard, non-commercial poultry, Demetre Daskalakis, director of CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said in a call with reporters.
The CDC said sporadic cases of severe illness in people infected with H5N1 bird flu are not unexpected given that similar cases, including fatal cases, have been reported in other countries in 2024 and earlier.
“The mild cases we’ve seen in the United States largely reflect that many individuals are becoming infected from dairy cows, and that’s very different from getting infected from infected birds,” said Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center. Is.” health Protection.
“If you look at the genotype of this patient in Louisiana, it was not the cattle strain. It was a wild bird species.”
The CDC said partial viral genome data from the infected patient shows that the virus is of the D1.1 genotype, which has recently been reported in wild birds and poultry in the United States and in recent human cases in British Columbia, Canada, and Washington state. Has been found in.
This genotype of the virus is different from the B3.13 genotype found in dairy cows, human cases in several states and some poultry outbreaks in the country, the CDC said.
bird flu has been infected More than 860 dairy herds in 16 states and 123 million poultry were culled in 2022 since the outbreak began.
In California, the top US milk-producing state, 649 herds have tested positive since the end of August, about 60%, according to US data.
Positive tests were reported at four Southern California dairies on December 12, necessitating a shift from regional containment to statewide surveillance and response, California Governor Gavin Newsom said in his emergency declaration.
Earlier cases were concentrated in the Central Valley in the middle of the state.
Newsom said the declaration is intended to streamline and speed up California’s response by allowing more flexibility for staffing, contracting and other rules.
The US Agriculture Department said it has enrolled 13 states, representing about half the nation’s milk supply, in its recently launched national bulk milk bird flu testing plan.
(TagstoTranslate)US News(T)Bird Flu(T)California(T)Emergency
