The influenza A (H5N1) virus, commonly known as bird flu, is widespread among wild birds around the world and has been circulating in American poultry since 2022, reports Xinhua news agency.
However, the situation worsened in late 2023, when the virus is believed to have jumped from birds to dairy cows on a Texas farm.
This was followed by a human infection in April related to exposure to infected livestock. To date, three human cases of infection have been reported, bringing the total number of H5N1 cases in the United States to four, including one case in 2022 linked to poultry exposure, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Disease Prevention (CDC).
The virus had been confirmed in at least 115 dairy herds in 12 states as of Thursday, according to the latest count posted on the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service website.
In a new study funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), researchers found that "small detectable amounts of infectious virus (H5N1) remained in raw milk samples with high levels of virus" when treated at 72 degrees Celsius for 15 seconds, according to an NIH news release last week.
The CDC noted that while the current risk to public health is low, it is watching the situation carefully and working with states to monitor people exposed to animals.
But public health experts have paid attention to the government's slow response and inadequate testing.
"Testing failures continued. This was a serious problem in the early months of COVID-19, with mpox and now with H5N1. There will be disease emergencies in the future," immunologist Gigi Gronvall wrote Thursday in the social network
Gronvall, an associate professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, called for a public-private partnership between the government, test developers and clinical laboratories to streamline testing rollout and information sharing at the start of an event. .
The World Health Organization considers bird flu a public health problem as these viruses, including the H5N1 strain, can cause mild to severe illness and death and have the potential to mutate to become more contagious, it says. the organization on its website.
While infections have been confirmed in livestock across the country, only 45 people have been tested for novel influenza A since March, and 550 are being monitored, according to the CDC's latest update on June 14.
Aside from the limited availability of bird flu testing, experts said the low trust of farm owners and workers in the government also makes it difficult to detect potential cases.
"The United States' response to H5N1 'bird flu' shows how risky gaps in coordination and trust can be," Tom Frieden, former CDC director, wrote in an analysis published by CNN on Tuesday.
"Trust in the U.S. government is low, especially among rural Americans who are on the front lines of these outbreaks," added Frieden, president and CEO of Resolve to Save Lives.
Many dairy farm workers in the United States are undocumented immigrants or migrants who may distrust the government or hesitate to miss work if they test positive, CDC Principal Deputy Director Nirav Shah told Axios in a Tuesday report.
Despite the allocation of federal funds to incentivize agricultural cooperation, no farms have enrolled in the voluntary on-site milk testing program, according to the United States Department of Agriculture.
However, the situation worsened in late 2023, when the virus is believed to have jumped from birds to dairy cows on a Texas farm.
This was followed by a human infection in April related to exposure to infected livestock. To date, three human cases of infection have been reported, bringing the total number of H5N1 cases in the United States to four, including one case in 2022 linked to poultry exposure, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Disease Prevention (CDC).
The virus had been confirmed in at least 115 dairy herds in 12 states as of Thursday, according to the latest count posted on the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service website.
In a new study funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), researchers found that "small detectable amounts of infectious virus (H5N1) remained in raw milk samples with high levels of virus" when treated at 72 degrees Celsius for 15 seconds, according to an NIH news release last week.
The CDC noted that while the current risk to public health is low, it is watching the situation carefully and working with states to monitor people exposed to animals.
But public health experts have paid attention to the government's slow response and inadequate testing.
"Testing failures continued. This was a serious problem in the early months of COVID-19, with mpox and now with H5N1. There will be disease emergencies in the future," immunologist Gigi Gronvall wrote Thursday in the social network
Gronvall, an associate professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, called for a public-private partnership between the government, test developers and clinical laboratories to streamline testing rollout and information sharing at the start of an event. .
The World Health Organization considers bird flu a public health problem as these viruses, including the H5N1 strain, can cause mild to severe illness and death and have the potential to mutate to become more contagious, it says. the organization on its website.
While infections have been confirmed in livestock across the country, only 45 people have been tested for novel influenza A since March, and 550 are being monitored, according to the CDC's latest update on June 14.
Aside from the limited availability of bird flu testing, experts said the low trust of farm owners and workers in the government also makes it difficult to detect potential cases.
"The United States' response to H5N1 'bird flu' shows how risky gaps in coordination and trust can be," Tom Frieden, former CDC director, wrote in an analysis published by CNN on Tuesday.
"Trust in the U.S. government is low, especially among rural Americans who are on the front lines of these outbreaks," added Frieden, president and CEO of Resolve to Save Lives.
Many dairy farm workers in the United States are undocumented immigrants or migrants who may distrust the government or hesitate to miss work if they test positive, CDC Principal Deputy Director Nirav Shah told Axios in a Tuesday report.
Despite the allocation of federal funds to incentivize agricultural cooperation, no farms have enrolled in the voluntary on-site milk testing program, according to the United States Department of Agriculture.
