As the bird flu panic in the United States is continuing to cool off, the United Kingdom has confirmed an outbreak of the H5N1 HPAI (highly pathogenic avian influenza) in southwestern England.
The UK ruling confirmed the bird flu outbreak on Sunday at a poultry premise. Accoridng to a report by Reuters, a 3 km (about 2 miles) protection zone and 10 km surveillance zone have been declared around the premises near Exminster in Devon, the government said, adding that “all poultry on the premises will be humanely culled.
Even though bird flu is not trending in the new cycle in the U.S. anymore, some media outlets still say that the 70 human cases highlight how much there is still unknown about the virus.
Bird Flu Is Spreading Through The Air As Cases Plummet?
Now, a new study in Nature Medicine, led by Melissa Rolfes and colleagues at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), provides the first systematic look at those cases. Of the seventy infections, four required hospitalization and one proved fatal – a stark contrast to the nearly 50% global death rate for H5N1, yet still a fatality rate over a thousand times greater than that of seasonal influenza, according to CDC data. –Forbes
Nearly all of the reported U.S. cases were linked to direct contact with animals. Fifty-nine percent involved dairy cows, while another third stemmed from work with infected commercial poultry, often during large “depopulation events,” i.e., when bird flu was detected in a flock and the entire flock was euthanized to prevent further spread.
Dr. Meryl Nass: Culling poultry in response to bird flu is a failed strategy and should cease
Two cases, however, came from backyard poultry. Both required hospitalization, and one was fatal. Three additional infections had no clear source, but genetic sequencing tied them to cattle-associated viruses.
Rolfes said: “There have been 2 cases associated with exposure to infected poultry kept in backyards; both cases were hospitalized, and 1 of these patients, unfortunately, died. These cases occurred during a time when the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) was reporting increases in influenza A(H5N1) virus detections in backyard poultry, which highlights that anyone who interacts with animals infected with influenza A(H5N1) viruses may be at risk of getting sick themselves.”
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Will bird flu make a resurgence this winter? Or will another pandemic hit? What do you think?
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