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Hey @Andy C were you around any cows before you got pink eye?
Maybe you had bird flu and didn't even know it
Author Affiliations Article Information
JAMA. Published online June 5, 2024. doi:10.1001/jama.2024.11500
On May 30, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced that a third dairy farm worker had tested positive for bird flu. The case, in Michigan, was the latest development in the ongoing H5N1 avian influenza outbreak that as of May 28 had reached at least 67 dairy cattle herds in 9 states.
"In March, a dairy farm worker in Texas became the first known case of the virus likely transmitting from a mammal to a person. On May 22, a case in a second farmworker, in Michigan, was announced. Both of these workers reported conjunctivitis as their only symptom and have since fully recovered. The latest case in Michigan involved eye discomfort with watery discharge but also upper respiratory symptoms, including cough without fever, according to the CDC. The person is recovering.
The first worker in Michigan used a text message–based symptom-monitoring system to report eye redness, discharge, and discomfort to state health authorities. A respiratory sample was negative for the highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) A(H5N1) virus, but a conjunctival sample confirmed the person’s infection.
This worker’s virus strain had a genetic change that has previously been associated with mammalian host adaptation, a May 24 CDC analysis found. The change is present in nearly all H5N1 virus sequences from dairy cows and has been found to enhance virus replication and disease severity in mouse studies involving a different influenza A virus. Still, the report stated, the viruses detected in cows and the first 2 human cases associated with dairy farms “maintain primarily avian genetic characteristics and lack changes that would make them better adapted to infect or transmit between humans.”
More than 350 people exposed to infected or possibly infected animals have been monitored for signs of infection, the agency notes, and at least 39 people who developed flu-like symptoms have been tested for the novel influenza A virus. So far, the 2 dairy farm workers in Texas and Michigan are the only confirmed cases associated with the cattle outbreak. The CDC is tracking human influenza surveillance data, including flu-like illness and conjunctivitis, particularly in areas where cows are known to be infected. As of May 24, the agency says data from emergency departments and public health and clinical laboratories do not show indicators of unusual flu activity in people in the US.
As for cows, a recent federal order requires lactating cattle to be tested for influenza A virus before being transported to a different state, with mandatory reporting of positive results. The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) also recommends that all transported dairy herds be isolated and observed for 30 days at their destination.
But scientists say these efforts fall far short of what’s needed.
“No animal or public health expert thinks that we are doing enough surveillance,” Keith Poulsen, DVM, PhD, director of the Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said in an email.
More testing should be conducted to document asymptomatic or mild infections and to understand how much transmission via respiratory routes vs contaminated surfaces—like milking instruments—is contributing to infections in both humans and cows, said Andrew Pekosz, PhD, a professor and vice chair of the Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Ideally, he said, workers at infected and surrounding farms would be tested twice a week for evidence of H5N1 infection and all animals on these farms would at a minimum also undergo weekly testing for active infection in respiratory and mammary tissue.
“That would allow us to get ahead of the outbreak instead of just chasing a confirmed symptomatic infection,” Pekosz said in an email. He pointed out, however, that surveillance in humans or cows is voluntary “and there is not much enthusiasm to participate.”
Poulsen noted that government and industry stakeholders are working hard to control the outbreak. He suggested that the biggest barrier to getting surveillance data from cows is the lack of guidance from the USDA on how to get a herd out of quarantine. “Herds are not going to identify now because the financial implications of becoming a positive herd are much worse than just weathering the storm,” he said. And if farms with infected cattle don’t identify themselves, public health officials don’t know where they should be testing workers. Compounding the issue, he explained, most migrant workers don’t want to be identified for any reason and will not consent to testing."
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jamanetwork.com
Maybe you had bird flu and didn't even know it
As a Third Worker Tests Positive for Bird Flu in US Dairy Cattle Outbreak, Here’s What to Know
Jennifer Abbasi1Author Affiliations Article Information
JAMA. Published online June 5, 2024. doi:10.1001/jama.2024.11500
On May 30, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced that a third dairy farm worker had tested positive for bird flu. The case, in Michigan, was the latest development in the ongoing H5N1 avian influenza outbreak that as of May 28 had reached at least 67 dairy cattle herds in 9 states.
"In March, a dairy farm worker in Texas became the first known case of the virus likely transmitting from a mammal to a person. On May 22, a case in a second farmworker, in Michigan, was announced. Both of these workers reported conjunctivitis as their only symptom and have since fully recovered. The latest case in Michigan involved eye discomfort with watery discharge but also upper respiratory symptoms, including cough without fever, according to the CDC. The person is recovering.
The first worker in Michigan used a text message–based symptom-monitoring system to report eye redness, discharge, and discomfort to state health authorities. A respiratory sample was negative for the highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) A(H5N1) virus, but a conjunctival sample confirmed the person’s infection.
This worker’s virus strain had a genetic change that has previously been associated with mammalian host adaptation, a May 24 CDC analysis found. The change is present in nearly all H5N1 virus sequences from dairy cows and has been found to enhance virus replication and disease severity in mouse studies involving a different influenza A virus. Still, the report stated, the viruses detected in cows and the first 2 human cases associated with dairy farms “maintain primarily avian genetic characteristics and lack changes that would make them better adapted to infect or transmit between humans.”
More than 350 people exposed to infected or possibly infected animals have been monitored for signs of infection, the agency notes, and at least 39 people who developed flu-like symptoms have been tested for the novel influenza A virus. So far, the 2 dairy farm workers in Texas and Michigan are the only confirmed cases associated with the cattle outbreak. The CDC is tracking human influenza surveillance data, including flu-like illness and conjunctivitis, particularly in areas where cows are known to be infected. As of May 24, the agency says data from emergency departments and public health and clinical laboratories do not show indicators of unusual flu activity in people in the US.
As for cows, a recent federal order requires lactating cattle to be tested for influenza A virus before being transported to a different state, with mandatory reporting of positive results. The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) also recommends that all transported dairy herds be isolated and observed for 30 days at their destination.
But scientists say these efforts fall far short of what’s needed.
“No animal or public health expert thinks that we are doing enough surveillance,” Keith Poulsen, DVM, PhD, director of the Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said in an email.
More testing should be conducted to document asymptomatic or mild infections and to understand how much transmission via respiratory routes vs contaminated surfaces—like milking instruments—is contributing to infections in both humans and cows, said Andrew Pekosz, PhD, a professor and vice chair of the Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Ideally, he said, workers at infected and surrounding farms would be tested twice a week for evidence of H5N1 infection and all animals on these farms would at a minimum also undergo weekly testing for active infection in respiratory and mammary tissue.
“That would allow us to get ahead of the outbreak instead of just chasing a confirmed symptomatic infection,” Pekosz said in an email. He pointed out, however, that surveillance in humans or cows is voluntary “and there is not much enthusiasm to participate.”
Poulsen noted that government and industry stakeholders are working hard to control the outbreak. He suggested that the biggest barrier to getting surveillance data from cows is the lack of guidance from the USDA on how to get a herd out of quarantine. “Herds are not going to identify now because the financial implications of becoming a positive herd are much worse than just weathering the storm,” he said. And if farms with infected cattle don’t identify themselves, public health officials don’t know where they should be testing workers. Compounding the issue, he explained, most migrant workers don’t want to be identified for any reason and will not consent to testing."
More
Bird Flu Update—The Latest on the Dairy Cattle Outbreak
This Medical News article discusses the latest developments in the H5N1 avian influenza outbreak in the US.
jamanetwork.com
