Officials announced Thursday that a third American dairy worker has been infected by bird flu, or H5N1. This is the second case in Michigan.
Federal officials said that unlike the first two cases in the United States, whose symptoms were limited to conjunctivitis or conjunctivitis, this person had more typical, flu-like respiratory symptoms. None of the three cases is associated with the others.
The risk to the general population is still considered low, federal officials said.
Aggressive and impactful reporting on climate change, the environment, health and science.
However, the case “underscores the importance of recommended precautions in people exposed to infected or potentially infected animals,” officials said in a written statement.
Officials said at a news conference Thursday that 40 people have been tested for H5N1 so far and have actively monitored more than 350 people, including 220 in Michigan.
They have also issued approximately 17,000 PCR tests for cattle, although that does not mean 17,000 individual cows have been tested, said Eric Deeble of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Some of them are pooled samples, so an individual test could “represent many more animals.”
He did not provide an estimate on how many cows are infected.
The latest dairy worker had been exposed to cows infected with H5N1 and reported flu symptoms to local health officials. The person complained of cough and eye discomfort with watery discharge. The worker did not have a fever. The patient received antiviral treatment, is currently isolated at his home and his symptoms are subsiding.
No one else in the person's household has developed symptoms, although they are being monitored. Additionally, no other workers at the same farm have reported symptoms and all staff are being monitored.
They stressed that there is no evidence of spread of bird flu from person to person at this time.
In March, federal officials reported that H5N1 had jumped from poultry to dairy cattle. The virus has been detected in 67 herds in nine states. There are no known cases of dairy cattle in California.
Earlier this week, Idaho reported that the virus had been detected in a herd of llamas. And a chicken farm in Iowa was infected, forcing the culling of 4.2 million birds.
Federal officials said in April that they believe the country's milk supply is safe, after H5N1 was detected in milk from grocery stores. However, they recommend avoiding raw milk, which may have high levels of active virus.
