The H5N1 hen flu scenario within the US appears extra fraught than ever this week because the virus continues to unfold swiftly in dairy cattle and birds whereas sporadically leaping to people.
On Monday, officers in Louisiana introduced that the one who had developed the nation’s first extreme H5N1 an infection had died of the an infection, marking the nation’s first H5N1 demise. In the meantime, with no indicators of H5N1 slowing, seasonal flu is skyrocketing, elevating anxiousness that the totally different flu viruses might mingle, swap genetic parts, and generate a but extra harmful virus pressure.
However, regardless of the seemingly fever-pitch of viral exercise and fears, a consultant for the World Well being Group in the present day famous that danger to the overall inhabitants stays low—so long as one crucial issue stays absent: person-to-person unfold.
“We’re involved, after all, however we have a look at the danger to the overall inhabitants and, as I stated, it nonetheless stays low,” WHO spokesperson Margaret Harris instructed reporters at a Geneva press briefing Tuesday in response to questions associated to the US demise. When it comes to updating danger assessments, you must have a look at how the virus behaved in that affected person and if it jumped from one particular person to a different particular person, which it did not, Harris defined. “In the meanwhile, we’re not seeing habits that is altering our danger evaluation,” she added.
In an announcement on the demise late Monday, the US Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention emphasised that no human-to-human transmission has been recognized within the US. To this point, there have been 66 documented human instances of H5N1 infections because the begin of 2024. Of these, 40 had been linked to publicity to contaminated dairy cows, 23 had been linked to contaminated poultry, two had no clear supply, and one case—the deadly case in Louisiana—was linked to publicity to contaminated yard and wild birds.
