TITLE: First Confirmed Bird Flu Infection in a U.S. Child Has Public Health Experts on Alert
https://www.verywellhealth.com/bird-flu-pediatric-case-united-states-8750401
EXCERPT: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Nov. 22 confirmed a case of avian influenza (H5N1) in a boy in California, making it the first reported bird flu infection in a child in the United States.
The CDC reports that the child is recovering, and the California Department of Public Health is investigating how the virus was contracted. Avian flu is typically carried by birds but can also infect animals, including dairy cows.
In 2024, more than 50 human cases of H5N1 have been reported among farm workers, with 29 cases in California. All cases involved mild symptoms such as pink eye.3 In Canada, a teenage boy recently tested positive for H5N1 and remains in critical condition.
Close contacts of both the California child and the Canadian teenager have tested negative for the virus. “To date, there has been no person-to-person spread identified associated with any of the H5N1 bird flu cases reported in the United States,” the CDC stated.1
Canadian doctors who treated the infected teenager have shared the virus’s genetic information online, which revealed mutations that may improve its ability to infect humans, according to Katelyn Jetelina, MPH, PhD, an epidemiologist and data scientist who founded the newsletter “Your Local Epidemiologist.”
“These changes alone do not mean that the virus is poised for efficient human-to-human spread, as many additional changes are likely needed for that to occur,” Jetelina told Verywell.
A CDC spokesperson told Verywell that as long as bird flu persists in wild birds, poultry, and dairy cows, sporadic infections in people with direct or recreational exposure are possible.
There’s no bird flu vaccine for humans right now. However, the seasonal flu shot may help lower the risk of viral mutations, according to Robert Hopkins, MD, medical director of the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases.
“The flu vaccine we get is not likely to be protective against H5N1, but influenza viruses can share genetic material, so if you get two viruses, there can be virus reassortment, which may result in the development of another more serious virus,” Hopkins told Verywell.
TITLE: H5N1 found in raw milk – the same drink promoted by America’s next health chief
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/science-and-disease/h5n1-bird-flu-raw-milk-california-united-states-of-america/
EXCERPTS: The virus was detected in a batch of raw or unpastured milk from Fresno-based brand Raw Farm, the largest producer of raw milk in California, via a sampling programme run by state health authorities.
Retailers were told to pull the product from their shelves, and consumers have been urged to discard the milk. No human infections have yet been linked to the product.
As of Friday, 402 dairy herds in California had tested positive for bird flu – the largest outbreak in the US since the virus started spreading among cattle late last year.
At least 27 people have tested positive for H5N1 in the state, mainly dairy workers, although just days ago a child in California tested positive for the virus for the first time in US history with no known exposure to sick cattle.
Whilst pasteurised milk undergoes a rigorous heating process that kills bacteria and viruses such as H5N1, the raw variety can lead to a number of serious health risks, including infections like salmonella, E. coli, brucella, campylobacter and listeria.
For this reason US health agencies have long-since warned of the dangers of consuming raw milk. But a number of public figures – including incoming US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr (RFK) – continue to promote its consumption.
RFK accused the US Food and Drug Administration of “suppressing” raw milk on X (formerly Twitter) last month. “FDA’s war on public health is about to end,” he said.
“Our citizens have the right to buy those products even though they have risks associated with them,” said Kimberly Coates, a Republican state representative, during the passage of a Louisiana bill that legalised raw milk sales in August of this year.
Gwenyth Paltrow – actress and founder of the alternative health website Goop – is part of a growing number of ‘wellness’ devotees who consume raw milk as a health food. Speaking on a podcast earlier this year, Paltrow said she drinks unpasteurised milk in her coffee every morning.
“I drink raw farm dairy, and there are schools of thought that say drinking raw milk is better, because once you process it it makes dairy harder to tolerate,” said Paltrow.
The view is becoming popular in America, where raw milk sales have grown by 20 per cent over the last year despite the risk of H5N1 growing over the same period.
TITLE: We Asked 5 Experts What Trump Should Do About Bird Flu. Here’s What They Said.
https://www.barrons.com/articles/bird-flu-cases-news-trump-what-to-do-444b78c0
EXCERPTS: Stopping bird flu in animals may be costly, but not nearly as costly as stopping it once it’s infecting humans.
“There may be costs like lost trade,” says Dr. Carole Cardona, a bird flu scientist and a professor at the University of Minnesota’s College of Veterinary Medicine. “There may be costs like animals that have to be destroyed. But those will still pale in comparison to what is the $16 trillion estimate on how much the Covid pandemic cost us.”
Today, it’s workers on poultry and dairy farms who are most at risk. Jennifer Nuzzo, a professor of epidemiology at Brown University and director of the school’s Pandemic Center, says that the top priority for now should be to find sick farmworkers and treat them quickly.
Health authorities say that farmworkers with high-risk exposures should be given the antiviral Tamiflu. Nuzzo also thinks farmworkers should be offered H5N1 vaccines, which do exist in a government stockpile.
Cardona says poultry workers in particular need better guidance on protective gear. The current advice isn’t practical, she says, because of the heat in the barns where they work. “I think we have to come to the table with some real conversations about what to do better,” she says.
“We need to beef up our surveillance,” says Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, an oncologist and prominent health policy expert who served in the Obama administration, and who advised the Biden administration on Covid-19 during the pandemic.
“More testing of bulk milk… is critical to understand how the virus moves,” wrote Dr. Jürgen Richt, director of the Center of Excellence for Emerging and Zoonotic Animal Diseases and a professor at the Kansas State University College of Veterinary Medicine.
Emanuel says we need to speed up development of an mRNA vaccine for avian influenza. “We’re still relying on, shockingly, shockingly, eggs,” he said, referring to how most flu vaccines are currently made. In an influenza pandemic situation, he said, “eggs just aren’t going to cut it.”
Moderna has a contract with the U.S. government to develop an mRNA-based bird flu vaccine, and has completed a phase 2 test, but has not yet progressed to phase 3.
There are at least two bird flu vaccines for cows currently being tested. Cardona says they should be used soon. “I think that’s the only way you’re going to control it,” she says.
Emanuel also says the federal government should prepare a new influenza pandemic preparedness plan.
“We need an assessment of our preparedness, in terms of both physical infrastructure, but also the human resources, the clinicians,” he says. “They’re tired, they’re burned out there. It’s a real problem, and we need to figure out what we need to do.”
If the virus does start to spread among humans, Trump appointees who were critical of mask mandates and lockdowns during the Covid-19 pandemic may need to impose some of the same restrictions.
SEE ALSO:
New report of bird flu in raw milk dismissed as ‘fake’ by RFK Jr. fans
https://www.dailydot.com/debug/raw-milk-bird-flu-rfk-jr-conspiracy-theory/
Experts say bird flu, not new cage-free law, to blame for egg shortage
https://www.kkco11news.com/video/2024/11/25/experts-say-bird-flu-not-new-cage-free-law-blame-egg-shortage-2/
Utah Culls More Than 100,000 Turkeys After Detecting Bird Flu
https://www.ntd.com/utah-culls-more-than-100000-turkeys-infected-with-bird-flu_1030868.html
Avian flu virus sparks mammal mutation concerns in Quebec
https://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/avian-flu-virus-sparks-mammal-mutation-concerns-in-quebec
Elephant seal colonies in Argentina face long recovery after ‘catastrophic’ avian flu
https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/elephant-seal-colonies-in-argentina-face-long-recovery-after-catastrophic-avian-flu/