Bird Flu Confirmed in Third Farmworker. The Symptoms Include a Cough. – Barron’s

State and public-health officials on Thursday confirmed that a farmworker with respiratory symptoms had tested positive for the avian flu virus spreading through U.S. dairy herds. Its the third confirmed human case amid the current outbreak.

The worker, who was exposed to infected cows at a Michigan dairy farm, is the first known human case of this outbreak with respiratory symptoms. The prior two infected workers had eye symptoms. The newly infected worker had a cough.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that the risk the virus poses to the general public remains low. The case is the second in Michigan, where public-health and agriculture authorities have been responsive to the virus, and are closely monitoring farmworkers who have been exposed to infected animals.

Michigans chief medical executive, Dr. Natasha Bagdasarian, said in a statement that the worker had been exposed directly to an infected cow, and had not been wearing personal protective equipment. No one in the workers household has developed symptoms, and the CDC said that there is no indication of person-to-person spread.

The discovery of a worker with respiratory symptoms due to an avian flu infection is a notable development in the dairy cow outbreak, but Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, told Barrons Thursday that it wasnt unexpected.

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Cases like this are not surprising, Osterholm said. Weve seen that throughout the history of H5 infectionthat there are occasional human cases of flulike illness that occur among these people that are exposed. The real concern is when we see person-to-person transmission. And theres no evidence here at all of that.

Osterholm said that he had seen additional information about the new case that had not yet been made public, and that the level of virus seen in the throat swab from the patient was very low. He said that government scientists were having trouble sequencing the virus from the infection because there was so little of it in the sample.

We need to continue to monitor whats happening here, Osterholm said. In the absence of any evidence of person-to-person transmission, I dont see this as any kind of a game-changer.

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The CDC said that one of the specimens collected from the patient had tested positive for influenza A(H5) virus at a state health lab. The CDC confirmed the results on May 29.Additional testing is ongoing to confirm that the virus is H5N1, and not a related virus.

Given the extent of the spread of this virus in dairy cows, additional human cases in people with higher risk exposures would not be surprising, CDC said in a statement.

The news of the additional case comes amid preparations for a possible human vaccine for the avian influenza virus.

Last week, federal officials said that they had begun the process of converting 4.8 million doses of avian influenza vaccine from bulk stockpiled product to finished doses ready to be administered. They also said they were in discussions with Moderna and Pfizer

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Nearly 70 dairy herds have tested positive for the virus since the outbreak began, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Write to Josh Nathan-Kazis at josh.nathan-kazis@barrons.com

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Bird Flu Confirmed in Third Farmworker. The Symptoms Include a Cough. - Barron's