Category: Flu Virus

This transcript has been edited for clarity.

We're now in the midst of a multistate outbreak of influenza A H5N1 bird flu in dairy cows and other animals. USDA has confirmed outbreaks in more than 130 dairy herds across 12 states, and also in a herd of alpacas. CDC has confirmed three human cases of bird flu in dairy farm workers.

The first case, on April 1, 2024, was the first-ever known case of cow-to-human transmission of bird flu viruses in the United States and globally, and it was the second-ever documented human case of bird flu in the United States. The first US case was in a poultry worker in Colorado in 2022. The chief complaint for the first two patients in that outbreak was conjunctivitis. The third patient had more typical flu symptoms, including a cough. All three of these patients had direct contact with infected cows. On July 3, 2024, a fourth human case of H5N1 bird flu, tied to the dairy cow outbreak, was identified in Colorado. This patient only reported eye symptoms.

Over the past 27 years, more than 900 sporadic bird flu cases in humans have been reported worldwide. Overall, 52% of them have been fatal. CDC says to avoid exposure to sick or dead animals. They also recommend wearing appropriate personal protective equipment for job-related exposure to infected or potentially infected animals.

Several questions come to mind. Is our milk supply safe? FDA says yes. PCR testing of milk samples did find genetic pieces of the virus, but they're not infectious. Pasteurization seems effective at killing this virus. This supports the safety of our commercial pasteurized milk supply, but not so for raw milk. So, people should avoid raw milk and any products made from it.

What about beef? USDA says our meat supply is safe. Even so, they've continued testing, and on Friday, May 24, bird flu was detected via PCR in beef muscle from a second condemned cow. However, results of a USDA ground beef cooking study are reassuring. In this study, high levels of virus were injected into large ground beef patties. The patties were then cooked to different temperatures 145 F (medium) and 160 F (well done). No virus was present in the burgers cooked to either temperature. The bottom line is that people should be careful handling raw meat and cook their meat to a safe internal temperature. No steak tartare.

Here's the good news. Currently available flu test kits can detect H5, but they can't distinguish bird flu from seasonal flu. Current flu antivirals seem to be effective against it, and if we do end up needing a new dedicated vaccine, we already have two candidate vaccine viruses that should provide good cross-reactivity.

CDC says that the risk to the general public, at least for now, is low. But CDC remains on high alert and is asking health partners to help raise awareness to physicians. Consider bird flu in patients with conjunctivitis and or other respiratory illness after relevant exposures. If this H5N1 virus starts to mix and mingle with the seasonal flu virus, we could really get into a mess. So please get your seasonal flu vaccine in the fall.

Read more here:

Be Alert for Conjunctivitis: New Human Cases of H5N1 Bird Flu - Medscape

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Several people have tested positive for bird flu in the U.S., raising questions about the availability of tests in the event of a potential outbreak.

As of July 11, the H5N1 virus has affected more than 99 million poultry (in all 50 states), more than 9,500 wild birds (in 48 states) and more than 145 dairy herds (in 12 states), according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Five human cases have been reported since 2022, including a farm worker infected in Colorado and dairy workers ill in Texas and Michigan.

AMID BIRD FLU SPREAD, EXPERTS REVEAL IF IT'S SAFE TO DRINK MILK

As of June 28, only 53 people have been tested for the virus associated with the dairy cow outbreak, according to the CDC.

Here is more information.

Several humans have tested positive for bird flu in the U.S., raising questions about the availability of tests in the event of a potential outbreak. (REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo)

At this point, only governmental health departments are providing H5N1 avian influenza testing, according to Edward Liu, M.D., chief of infectious diseases at Hackensack Meridian Jersey Shore University Medical Center.

"However, the CDC is taking steps to ramp up the nations capacity to test for the flu virus, asking private companies to develop and increase the number and types of tests that can effectively detect H5N1 infections in people," Liu told Fox News Digital via email.

COULD A BIRD FLU PANDEMIC SPREAD TO HUMANS? HERES WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

"A recent announcement from the CDC seemed to indicate that multiple private organizations are working on developing tests."

Private companies, however, will likely not ramp up production unless there is a clear demand for avian flu tests due to increasing numbers, Liu added.

As of July 11, the H5N1 virus has affected more than 99 million poultry, more than 9,500 wild birds and more than 145 dairy herds, according to the CDC. (iStock)

Neal Barnard, M.D., an adjunct professor of medicine at the George Washington University School of Medicine in Washington, D.C., and president of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, confirmed there are currently no consumer-level tests for bird flu.

"The home tests for flu (which can be bought on Amazon, for example) are not sensitive to bird flu," he told Fox News Digital in an email.

BIRD FLU PANDEMIC IN FUTURE? EU WARNS OF POTENTIAL SPREAD TO HUMANS DUE TO 'LACK OF IMMUNE DEFENSE

"If a person has symptoms and an exposure history suggestive of bird flu, a doctor can send a swab sample to the state health department, which can arrange appropriate testing, but this is rarely done."

In a June 10 memo, the CDC issued a public statement warning of a lack of testing availability.

"The World Health Organization (WHO) has identified this virus as a major public health concern, as it has the potential to cause a global pandemic," the statement read.

"The home tests for flu are not sensitive to bird flu."

"The current testing capabilities for influenza A(H5) are limited, which could hinder efforts to contain and control the virus in the event of an outbreak."

Currently, only the CDC and certain jurisdictional public health laboratories are equipped to test for and diagnose bird flu, according to the agency.

In a June 10 memo, the CDC issued a public statement warning of lack of testing availability for the H5N1 virus. (Getty Images)

"This poses a significant problem, as these laboratories may not have the capacity to handle a large number of cases in the event of an H5 epidemic or pandemic," the statement said.

"This could result in delays in diagnosing and treating individuals, leading to the further spread of the virus."

It also noted, "The amount of testing required in the event of an emergency may quickly exceed the capacity to test at public health laboratories, both domestically and internationally."

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To address the situation, the CDC called for private companies to design a lab developed test (LDT) to gain regulatory approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

The tests currently available to individuals will alert that a person has the flu but may not be able to determine if it is avian flu (which is a flu A variant) versus other circulating strains of flu, the expert said.

"However, at the least, that broad detection will give enough information for a clinician to start the patient on antiviral medication, like Tamiflu, which currently will treat avian flu," Liu noted.

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A number of tests are available to detect flu viruses, the doctor said.

The most common are rapid influenza diagnostic tests (RIDTs), which detect parts of the virus that stimulate an immune response.

Advanced tests reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), viral culture and immunofluorescence assays will be able to differentiate avian flu from other strains of flu, a doctor said. (REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo)

"These tests can provide results within approximately 10 to 15 minutes, but may not be as accurate as other flu tests," Liu said.

Other flu tests, called rapid molecular assays, detect the genetic material of the flu virus.

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"Rapid molecular assays produce results in 15 to 20 minutes and are more accurate than RIDTs," Liu said.

The CDC has recommended molecular tests due to their greater sensitivity.

There have been a total of five human cases reported since 2022, including the case of a farm worker in Colorado and that of dairy workers in Texas and Michigan. (iStock)

"There are several other, more accurate flu tests available that must be performed in specialized laboratories, such as hospitals and public health laboratories," Liu said.

These advanced tests reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), viral culture and immunofluorescence assays will be able to differentiate avian flu from other strains of flu, the doctor said.

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"These tests require a health care provider to swipe the inside of the nose or the back of the throat with a swab and then send it for testing," he said. "Results may take one to several hours."

Fox News Digital reached out to the CDC requesting comment.

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In a potential outbreak, is bird flu testing available for humans? What to know - Fox News

By Amy Maxmen and Arthur Allen July 11, 2024

As bird flu spreads among dairy cattle in the U.S., veterinarians and researchers have taken note of Finlands move to vaccinate farmworkers at risk of infection. They wonder why their government doesnt do the same.

Farmworkers, veterinarians, and producers are handling large volumes of milk that can contain high levels of bird flu virus, said Kay Russo, a livestock and poultry veterinarian in Fort Collins, Colorado. If a vaccine seems to provide some immunity, I think it should be offered to them.

Among a dozen virology and outbreak experts interviewed by KFF Health News, most agree with Russo. They said people who work with dairy cows should be offered vaccination for a disease that has killed roughly half of the people known to have gotten it globally over the past two decades, has killed cats in the U.S. this year, and has pandemic potential.

However, some researchers sided with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in recommending against vaccination for now. Theres no evidence that this years bird flu virus spreads between people or causes serious disease in humans. And its unclear how well the available vaccine would prevent either scenario.

But the wait-and-see approach is a gamble, said Jennifer Nuzzo, director of the Pandemic Center at Brown University. By the time we see severe outcomes, it means a lot of people have been infected.

Now is the time to offer the vaccines to farmworkers in the United States, said Nahid Bhadelia, director of the Boston University Center on Emerging Infectious Diseases. Even more urgent measures are lagging in the U.S., she added. Testing of farmworkers and cows is sorely needed to detect the H5N1 bird flu virus, study it, and extinguish it before it becomes a fixture on farms posing an ever-present pandemic threat.

Demetre Daskalakis, director of the CDCs National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said the agency takes bird flu seriously, and the U.S. is stockpiling 4.8 million doses of the vaccine. But, he said, theres no recommendation to launch a vaccine campaign.

Its all about risk-benefit ratios, Daskalakis said. The benefits are blurry because there hasnt been enough testing to understand how easily the virus jumps from cows into people, and how sick they become. Just four people in the United States have tested positive this year, with mild cases too few to draw conclusions.

Other farmworkers and veterinarians working on dairy farms with outbreaks have reported being sick, Russo said, but they havent been tested. Public health labs have tested only about 50 people for the bird flu since the outbreak was detected in March.

Still, Daskalakis said the CDC is not concerned that the agency is missing worrisome bird flu infections because of its influenza surveillance system. Hospitals report patients with severe cases of flu, and numbers are normal this year.

Another signal that puts the agency at ease is that the virus doesnt yet have mutations that allow it to spread rapidly between people as they sneeze and breathe. If we start to see changes in the virus, thats another factor that would be part of the decision to move from a planning phase into an operational one, Daskalakis said.

On July 8, researchers reported that the virus may be closer to spreading between people than previously thought. It still doesnt appear to do so, but experiments suggest it has the ability to infect human airways. It also spread between two laboratory ferrets through the air.

In considering vaccines, the agency takes a cue from a 1976 outbreak of the swine flu. Officials initially feared a repeat of the 1918 swine flu pandemic that killed roughly half a million people in the United States. So they rapidly vaccinated nearly 43 million people in the country within a year.

But swine flu cases turned out to be mild that year. This made the vaccine seem unnecessarily risky as several reports of a potentially deadly disorder, Guillain-Barr Syndrome, emerged. Roughly one of every million people who get influenza vaccines may acquire the disorder, according to the CDC. That risk is outweighed by the benefits of prevention. Since Oct. 1, as many as 830,000 people have been hospitalized for the seasonal flu and 25,000 to 75,000 people have died.

An after-action report on the 1976 swine flu situation called it a sobering, cautionary tale about responding prematurely to an uncertain public health threat. Its a story about what happens when you launch a vaccine program where you are accepting risk without any benefit, Daskalakis said.

Paul Offit, a virologist at the Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia, sides with the CDC. Id wait for more data, he said.

However, other researchers say this isnt comparable to 1976 because they arent suggesting that the U.S. vaccinate tens of millions of people. Rather theyre talking about a voluntary vaccine for thousands of people in close contact with livestock. This lessens the chance of rare adverse effects.

The bird flu vaccine on hand, made by the flu vaccine company CSL Seqirus, was authorized last year by the European equivalent of the FDA. An older variety has FDA approval, but the newer variety hasnt gotten the green light yet.

Although the vaccine targets a different bird flu strain than the H5N1 virus now circulating in cows, studies show it triggers an immune response against both varieties. Its considered safe because it uses the same egg-based vaccine technology deployed every year in seasonal flu vaccines.

For these reasons, the United States, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and about a dozen other countries are stockpiling millions of doses. Finland expects to offer them to people who work on fur farms this month as a precaution because its mink and fox farms were hit by the bird flu last year.

In contrast, mRNA vaccines being developed against the bird flu would be a first for influenza. On July 2, the U.S. government announced that it would pay Moderna $176 million for their development, and that the vaccines may enter clinical trials next year. Used widely against covid-19, this newer technology uses mRNA to teach the immune system how to recognize particular viruses.

In the meantime, Florian Krammer, a flu virologist at Mount Sinais Icahn School of Medicine, said people who work on dairy farms should have the option to get the egg-based vaccine. It elicits an immune response against a primary component of the H5N1 bird flu virus that should confer a degree of protection against infection and serious sickness, he said.

Still, its protection wouldnt be 100%. And no one knows how many cases and hospitalizations it would prevent since it hasnt been used to combat this years virus. Such data should be collected in studies that track the outcomes of people who opt to get one, he said.

Krammer isnt assuaged by the lack of severe bird flu cases spotted in clinics. If you see a signal in hospitals, the cat is out of the bag. Game over, we have a pandemic, he said. Thats what we want to avoid.

He and others stressed that the United States should be doing everything it can to curb infections before flu season starts in October. The vaccine could provide an additional layer of protection on top of testing, wearing gloves, and goggles, and disinfecting milking equipment. Scientists worry that if people get the bird flu and the seasonal flu simultaneously, bird flu viruses could snag adaptations from seasonal viruses that allow them to spread swiftly among humans.

They also note it could take months to distribute the vaccines after theyre recommended since it requires outreach. People who work beside dairy cows still lack information on the virus, four months into this outbreak, said Bethany Boggess Alcauter, director of research at the National Center for Farmworker Health.

Health officials have talked with dairy farm owners, but Boggess interviews with farmworkers suggest those conversations havent trickled down to their staff. One farmworker in the Texas Panhandle told her he was directed to disinfect his hands and boots to protect cows from diseases that workers may carry. They never told us if the cow could infect us with some illness, the farmworker said in Spanish.

The slow pace of educational outreach is a reminder that everything takes time, including vaccine decisions. When deciding whether to recommend vaccines, the CDC typically seeks guidance from its Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or the ACIP. A consultant to the group, infectious disease researcher William Schaffner, has repeatedly asked the agency to present its thinking on Seqirus bird flu vaccine.

Rather than fret about the 1976 swine flu situation, Schaffner suggested the CDC consider the 2009-10 swine flu pandemic. It caused more than 274,000 hospitalizations and 12,000 deaths in the U.S. within a year. By the time vaccines were rolled out, he said, much of the damage had been done.

The time to discuss this with ACIP is now, said Schaffner, before the bird flu becomes a public health emergency. We dont want to discuss this until the cows come home in the middle of a crisis.

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Finland Is Offering Farmworkers Bird Flu Shots. Some Experts Say the US Should, Too. - Kaiser Health News

HUNT VALLEY, Md. (TND) It may not be the next pandemic, but scientists are warning its proof were not ready for when the next one comes: the bird flu.

Avian influenza a cousin of the seasonal influenza we deal with every year is not new. Its believed to have been around hundreds of years before the 1918 Spanish avian flu pandemic that killed an estimated 50 to 100 million people worldwide.

There have been numerous outbreaks of avian influenza in various countries among various animal species over the years, as its not just birds that get infected.

The latest outbreak surfaced in 2020 when a severe variant of the H5N1 avian influenza strain (referred to as H5) started spreading in animals around the world. In February 2022, the virus started causing sporadic outbreaks in backyard and commercial poultry flocks in the U.S.

As of May 2024, more than 90 million chickens and turkeys in 47 states have been killed since the outbreak began, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The virus is typically fatal to birds within days of infection, and farmers have to euthanize flocks to stop the spread.

Its also infected alpacas, sea lions, house cats, skunks and more during this most recent outbreak.

But up until this year, it had never infected cows.

As of this week, there have been more than 135 dairy herds in a dozen states reported with H5 infections.

Cows are largely spared of the virus severity; the infection concentrates in the udders of lactating animals, meaning their raw milk is contaminated.

And thats where human H5 infections come in.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, four human cases of the bird flu have been reported in the U.S. from exposure to dairy cattle since March 2024. Three of those four got conjunctivitis, otherwise known as pink eye, and the other had mild respiratory symptoms.

Experts say they were likely exposed when milking cows if milk happened to squirt in their eyes.

To date, there havent been any signs of human-to-human transmission.

These do appear, at this point, to be dead-end infections, which is reassuring, said Dr. Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease physician and a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. But because of whats happened with other flu pandemics, were always on the lookout for bird flu viruses behaving differently: infecting more poultry; infecting mammalian species, because that gives these bird flu viruses the opportunity to evolve and become more efficient at infecting humans.

Adalja joins a chorus of scientists who are sounding the alarm that this could be another pandemic slowly unfolding.

On its website, the CDC says the current risk to the general public from bird flu viruses is low, and surveillance so far hasnt shown any unusual influenza activity in people. Dairy farmers and other animal workers are at the highest risk, but even when they contract the virus, they experience very mild symptoms. Some might not even notice.

Experts remind people to never drink unpasteurized milk, which can carry not just the bird flu, but a host of other pathogens and bacteria.

The Food and Drug Administration released a first-of-its-kind study last month further confirming pasteurization is effective at inactivating H5 in milk. The FDA did find traces of the virus in 20% of dairy products sampled from grocery shelves nationwide, but there were no signs of live infectious virus in those samples.

Not all countries have central pasteurization, so if the outbreak becomes more widespread globally, some experts say it could have concerning implications. Raw milk is legal in several European countries.

Because the bird flu is not new, the U.S. already has a strategic national stockpile of two different vaccines against it. The federal government also just paid drug manufacturer Moderna $176 million to develop another one, using the same mRNA technology Moderna used for the COVID-19 vaccine.

Shah says theres no recommendation for use of the H5-specific vaccine right now, and the regular flu season shot will not protect against the bird flu.

Still, he says the CDC is monitoring for any changes in the virus: increased severity; human-to-human transmission; infection in people not exposed to livestock, etc. Any of these would be turning points, and he anticipates, if we get to that point, the CDC would recommend vaccination for risk groups (likely farmworkers and their families), and then move out in concentric rings.

Testing for avian influenza is just like getting tested for regular influenza, meaning we have plenty of tests stockpiled just in case. Adalja says the U.S. has tests that can distinguish between different flu strains.

Adalja and federal agencies agree theres not a need right now for the general public to be tested.

According to Reuters, state health officials say 99 people have been tested for bird flu in Michigan, Texas, Idaho, Colorado and New Mexico. Several other states with bird flu outbreaks either didnt report their human testing data or said they hadnt tested anyone.

Meanwhile, the CDCs website says between March 2024 and now, there have been at least 1,390 people monitored for H5 (asymptomatic people who may have been exposed) and at least 61 people tested for H5 (symptomatic). Four positive cases have been identified.

Whats really of concern for Adalja and other scientists is the testing of cattle themselves, which is up to farmers. The federal government can only test herds before they cross state lines, and state testing efforts are currently inconsistent because, according to experts, some farmers arent quick to want to reveal that their herds might have an outbreak.

Many farm workers are reluctant to be tested and dont want the stigma of testing positive, Adalja said. Theres economic considerations that are constraining their ability. This is occurring in a commodity, and states dont want to have any kind of disruption to the economy.

Adalja points to the negative effects a stigma like this can have in April, Colombia became the first country to officially restrict imports of U.S. beef due to bird flu in cows. The U.S. Meat Export Federation called the restriction unworkable and misguided, arguing the rest of the United States trading partners are following the science, and havent restricted any imports.

But without accurate reporting to show the full scope of the virus spread, Adalja says this creates a lack of situational awareness about the bird flu in the country.

There are likely more dairy cattle herds that are infected across this country. We also expect that there have been more humans that have been infected, he said. Anecdotally, there have been reports of people with flu-like illness or eye infections that did not get tested. In the initial first case acquired from a cow in the U.S., the family members refused to be tested.

Shah says this is an issue public health officials have always dealt with, and when a virus changes or infects a new animal species, it takes time to build up trust among industry workers to agree to testing.

Still, as it stands, H5 does not cause severe illness in humans, which raises the question: if only four people have gotten it and had mild symptoms; if it doesnt impact our commercial milk supply; if sick cows generally recover; and if theres no human-to-human transmission, why risk the negative stigma and cause the economy to take a hit?

Scientists point to the H1N1 virus, often called the swine flu, which was declared a pandemic in 2009, and killed more than 280,000 people worldwide. It had previously spread among pigs and birds, but the different viruses combined to create a more severe strain that started infecting people.

Experts say more surveillance of that virus could have helped authorities prepare and possibly save more lives.

The same goes for the COVID-19 pandemic. Federal agencies have admitted their missteps: taking years to declare the virus as airborne; recommending measures to prevent the spread that werent backed by science; implying vaccines would stop transmission; and failing to prepare hospitals and nursing homes adequately.

A bipartisan group called the COVID Crisis Group published a report on the mistakes made during that pandemic. The primary author, Philip Zelikow, told USA Today, We went into a 21st-century pandemic with a 19th-century system. Weve come out of that pandemic essentially retaining the 19th century structure.

Adalja said many in the public health community agree they dont have a lot of confidence in our current system.

The point is that there will be avian flu viruses in the future that will cause pandemics, just like what happened in 1918, Adalja said. I think what we want to do is think of this bird flu outbreak in cows almost as a trial run and if we cant iron out the differences between agriculture and human health and commerce with a less forgiving virus, its not going to be a good situation."

Shah says the CDC has learned lessons from COVID-19, and state, county and local health officials are checking in with farmers across the country every day. Yet, theres only so much federal agencies can track and require, which is something Shah says his agency has discussed with the scientific community.

One of the challenges with outbreak response is, unfortunately, you never have all the data you want at the time that you need it in order to move forward. And thats the situation were in right now, he said. We absolutely wish that there was more testing happening. We wish we had better data and what is unfolding in real-time. Thats the goal that were moving to. Unfortunately, testing can be a challenge. Testing fundamentally takes trust.

Read more from the original source:

Experts: Bird flu is a 'wake-up call' - WNWO NBC 24

Bird flu snapshot: This is the latest installment in a series of regular updates on H5N1 avian flu that STAT is publishing on Monday mornings. To read future updates, you can also subscribe to STATs Morning Rounds newsletter.

Last week, following an unusually udder pun-laden discussion, lawmakers in Delaware voted to become the latest state to legalize the sale of raw milk. Not part of the discussion was the fact that an ongoing outbreak of H5N1 bird flu in U.S. dairy cattle has scientists increasingly concerned that the virus could be transmitted to humans through raw milk.

While there have not yet been any confirmed human cases of bird flu transmission as a result of raw milk consumption, with the number of affected herds continuing to rise the figure hit 141 in 12 states at the end of last week public health officials worry its just a matter of time. (The USDAs count was 140 on Friday, which did not include the latest detection in Iowa.)

Results of a recently released study conducted by the Food and Drug Administration and U.S. Department of Agriculture show that commercial pasteurization techniques effectively reduce virus in milk to undetectable levels. But the study which was released as a preprint, meaning it has not yet been peer-reviewed also found an alarming amount of infectious virus is getting off of farms in contaminated milk.

Over two weeks in late April, officials from four states with infected herds collected 275 raw milk samples from bulk tanks large storage tanks used to cool and store milk until it can be picked up and pooled for processing. Scientists from the FDA and the USDA were able to grow live virus from 14% of raw milk samples.

Don Prater, the FDAs acting director of the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, told journalists Tuesday that the studys results provide broad assurance that pasteurized milk and dairy products made from pasteurized milk are safe.

But they also underline shortfalls in the dairy industrys ability to identify contaminated milk and divert it from the food supply. Those lapses are not necessarily due to negligence; researchers suspect that cows may be able to shed virus into milk before showing clinical signs of illness, and studies evaluating this possibility are currently underway.

Raw milk also remains a concern because people who are exposed to it on the job continue to fall ill.

In Colorado where one-quarter of the states dairy herds have been impacted by H5N1 state health authorities announced Wednesday the nations fourth human case of bird flu infection linked to the current outbreak. In a statement, health officials said the infected individual is an adult male farmworker who had mild symptoms, reporting only conjunctivitis, or pink eye, and has since recovered.

Three additional farmworkers, in Texas and Michigan, are known to have developed mild cases of H5N1, presumably from close contact with cows.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said this latest infection doesnt change the agencys assessment that H5N1 bird flu is a low health risk for the general public. But the CDC announced last week that it is preparing for the possibility that the virus evolves to more easily spread to and between humans. As part of that effort, the agency is taking steps to ramp up the nations capacity to detect bird flu in people, including working with commercial labs to produce more H5-specific tests.

The move was hailed by many as a welcome development, given how the CDCs testing failures at the outset of the Covid-19 pandemic allowed the coronavirus to spread undetected. Others believe the agency is repeating many of the same mistakes. Rick Bright, the former head of the Rockefeller Foundations short-lived Pandemic Prevention Institute, and now a consultant in the pandemic preparedness sphere, said on X that there needs to be more emphasis on developing rapid, at-home tests for H5N1, which will be more useful in the event of an influenza pandemic.

On Tuesday, the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority the federal agency Bright helmed from 2016 through 2020 announced plans to support the development of messenger RNA-based pandemic influenza vaccines. BARDA awarded a $176 million contract to Moderna, the company that produced one of the first Covid-19 vaccines.

In addition to the deal with Moderna, which is expected to begin a Phase 3 clinical trial of its pandemic influenza vaccine next year, the U.S. government already has vaccine contracts and stockpiles of H5 vaccines made using other platforms by other manufacturers, including CSL Seqirus and Sanofi.

Dawn OConnell, assistant secretary for preparedness and response at the Department for Health and Human Services, told reporters last week that nearly 5 million doses of H5 vaccine are being moved out of bulk storage and put into vials, with the first doses expected to roll off the finishing line in mid-July.

At this time, federal health officials are not recommending H5N1 vaccination for any segment of the U.S. population. In Finland, however, the government last week began offering shots to people at risk of exposure the first country to take such action. Although the Scandinavian nation has not recorded any H5N1 infections in humans, there have been outbreaks at fur farms among mink and foxes.

Finland has acquired 20,000 doses of an H5 vaccine manufactured by CSL Seqirus enough to vaccinate 10,000 people, with priority going to fur farm workers, poultry farmers, veterinarians, and scientists who study the virus. According to a public database, 15 shots have been administered so far, although Anniina Virkku, a medical specialist with the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare, told STAT in an email that due to delays in data transmission, the actual number of doses administered might be higher.

More here:

Bird flu snapshot: Live H5N1 virus grown from raw milk samples as Delaware moves to legalize its sale - STAT

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The bird flu strain found in cows in the United States is not easily transmitted through the air among ferrets, a new study shows, although the scientist who led the work said it had shown some ability to spread this way.

Ferrets are considered to be the best small mammal for studying influenza virus infection and transmission, and are often used to inform assessments of the public health risk of emerging viruses.

In the experiment led by researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, ferrets infected with a sample of the H5N1 bird flu strain were placed near healthy animals, but not close enough for physical contact.

BIRD FLU-INFECTED COWS HAVE DIED IN 5 STATES AS EXPERTS CLOSELY MONITOR THE DISEASE

None of the four healthy ferrets exposed in this way became ill, and no virus was recovered from them during the study.

However, one of the ferrets had produced antibodies to the virus, the researchers later found, suggesting it had been infected.

"It is good news that the virus does not have extensive transmissibility between ferrets through the air, but it is concerning that it has the ability to transmit (at all in this way)," said study author and flu virologist Yoshihiro Kawaoka.

Cows stand in their pen at a cattle farm in Rockford, Illinois, U.S., April 9, 2024. Fact (Reuters/Jim Vondruska/File Photo)

A virus that can spread easily through the air between humans would pose a greater pandemic threat than H5N1 currently does.

That risk is currently assessed by public health agencies worldwide as low, as there is no evidence yet of any human-to-human transmission.

Four human cases have been reported in the U.S. since avian flu was confirmed in dairy cows in March. All have recovered.

The study, published on Monday in Nature, also showed the bird flu virus in cows can bind to human-type receptors under lab conditions. These receptors are how flu viruses typically enter and infect human cells in the real world.

Bird flu prefers to bind to avian-type receptors only, which are scarce in humans. The lab results need further study to assess their real-world implications, scientists said, as in the past flu viruses that developed the ability to bind to both types have caused human pandemics.

The study also confirmed that the virus, isolated from the milk of an infected cow in New Mexico, made both mice and ferrets sick after exposure to the unpasteurized milk.

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It also spread through the body to muscles and mammary glands in infected mice, as it appears to do in cows.

Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at the University of Saskatchewan in Canada, said it was a relief to see the virus had not yet acquired the capability to cause a human pandemic, but this did not mean it would never do so, particularly if the spread among cows goes unchecked.

"It's always better to stop a pandemic before it starts than to respond to it once it has started. We should heed this warning and take action now," she said via email.

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Ferret study shows bird flu found in US cows carries low risk of airborne transmission - Fox News

The Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) has awarded a $749,999 contract to Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Tiba Biotech to develop a new RNAi-based therapeutic against bird flu.

In a July 11 press release, Tiba announced that BARDA had selected it for an EZ-BAA contract under the Flexible and Strategic Therapeutics, or FASTx, program. FASTx is focused on creating a robust arsenal of treatment platforms that can be adapted quickly in the case of public health emergencies like pandemics, according to the initiatives website.

Tibas technology is a synthetic, biodegradable nanoparticle platform for delivering RNA-based therapies. Its meant to be an upgrade from lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) like the ones used in Pfizer and Modernas mRNA vaccines for COVID-19. For Tiba, the rationale is that while LNPs are safe at low levels, dosing is limited by the possibility of toxicity and inflammation. They also have a low payload capacity that prevents them from being useful for treating certain kinds of diseases that would require larger, more complex molecules. Furthermore, ongoing patent wars and high licensing fees make new LNP applications too expensive to get off the ground.

In contrast, Tibas platform can handle a payload capacity that is an order of magnitude greater than traditional LNPs, the company claims. That provides room for new RNA designs that express more of a single protein as well as multiple antigens. The particles can perhaps handle other complex machinery, too, making them theoretically useful not just for vaccines but also CRISPR/Cas9 systems and smart RNA circuits for gene therapy, per Tibas website. The company plans to engineer therapies not only for infectious disease but also autoimmune conditions, allergies and oncology applications.

Tibas new work with BARDA will see the company develop an RNAi-based treatment for the bird flu strain H1N1. It will build upon existing work on a multi-antigen, mRNA-based H7N9 vaccine, the preclinical development of which is being funded by a National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease grant. The company also was recently accepted into a joint initiative between BARDA and Johnson & Johnson called Blue Knight, another project to boost pandemic and public health crisis preparedness.

Tibahas raised around $4 million in funding so far from organizations including the Gates Foundation on top of around $4 million in grants, with another $12 million in agreements for research support from both domestic and international government agencies.

Editor's note: This article was updated on July 11 to correct that Tiba is not making a vaccine for the bird flu, but an RNAi-based treatment. A previous version of this story mentioned that the company had worked on a treatment for the Zika virus; this research preceded the company's formation.

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Tiba wins BARDA contract to develop RNAi bird flu therapeutic - Fierce Biotech

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Avian influenza, or bird flu, has public health officials on alert after an unprecedented spread in dairy cows in the United States this year. Four dairy workers have also tested positive in the country.

A particularly severe variant of the H5N1 strain has been spreading around the world in animals since 2020, causing lethal outbreaks in commercial poultry and sporadic infections in other species from alpacas to house cats. Until this year, it had never infected cows.

Different bird flu strains have been found in Australia and Mexico in humans, while different H5 subtypes are also present around the world in both animals and humans, in countries including China and Cambodia.

FERRET STUDY SHOWS BIRD FLU FOUND IN US COWS CARRIES LOW RISK OF AIRBORNE TRANSMISSION

Most of the human cases reported exposure to poultry, live poultry markets, or dairy cattle prior to infection, but scientists are worried the virus could mutate in ways that make it more easily spread from person-to-person, which could spark a pandemic. The World Health Organization says the risk to people is low at this point.

Below are occurrences of varying types of the bird flu virus that have been found in humans this year.

The first known cases of infected dairy cattle occurred in Texas in March, and is now in dairy herds in 12 states. The U.S. Agriculture Department said tests so far indicate that the virus detected in cows is the same H5N1 virus affecting wild birds and commercial poultry flocks. The four dairy workers who have tested positive for the virus this year had mild symptoms such as conjunctivitis, or pink eye.

A particularly severe variant of the H5N1 strain has been spreading around the world in animals since 2020. (Reuters/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo)

The H5N1 virus in the United States belongs to the clade 2.3.4.4b, genotype B3.13, a genotype detected only in North America so far, the European Food Safety Agency said in a scientific report.

A resident of Mexico died with the first known cases of H5N2 avian influenza in humans, the WHO said on June 5. Mexico's government said chronic illness, rather than bird flu, was the cause of death. The person had no known exposure to animals.

The WHO on June 7 said a child with H5N1 bird flu reported by Australia had traveled to Kolkata, India. Genetic sequencing showed the virus was a subtype of H5N1 and part of a strain that circulates in Southeast Asia and has been detected in previous human infections and in poultry.

Australia is separately dealing with three outbreaks of different strains of the virus on poultry farms - H7N3, H7N8 and H7N9 - that authorities say likely arrived on farms via wild birds.

The WHO on June 11 reported a case of human infection with bird flu caused by the H9N2 subtype in a four-year-old child in the eastern Indian state of West Bengal. It was the second human infection of H9N2 bird flu from India following a case in 2019, the agency said. While the H9N2 virus typically tends to cause mild illness, the United Nations agency said further sporadic human cases could occur as this is one of the most prevalent avian influenza viruses circulating in poultry in different regions.

Vietnam reported a 21-year-old student had died from the H5N1 bird flu in March. He had no underlying medical conditions, but had been exposed to wild birds from hunting a couple of weeks prior to onset of symptoms. No contact with dead or sick poultry was reported at the time.

Vietnam also reported an outbreak of H9N2 in a 37-year-old man, EFSA said.

The Southeast Asia nation and Vietnam neighbor has reported five human cases of H5N1 as of June 20.

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China this year detected human cases caused by the H5N6, H9N2 and H10N3 strains, with two fatal H5N6 cases in the Fujian province. Both of those cases had exposure to backyard poultry before the onset of symptoms, EFSA said.

The case of H10N3 avian influenza was the third one ever reported globally.

Germany reported a rare outbreak of highly pathogenic H7N5 bird flu on a farm in the western part of the country, near the border with the Netherlands, the World Organization for Animal Health said on July 4. It was the first outbreak anywhere of H7N5 on WOAH's public records.

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Bird flu has infected humans in these countries as virus spreads around the world - Fox News

Whats the difference? is a new editorial product that explains the similarities and differences between commonly confused health and medical terms, and why they matter.

The term man flu takes a humorous poke at men with minor respiratory infections, such as colds, who supposedly exaggerate their symptoms.

According to the stereotype, a man lies on the sofa with a box of tissues. Meanwhile his female partner, also with a snotty nose, carries on working from home, doing the chores and looking after him.

But is man flu real? Is there a valid biological reason behind mens symptoms or are men just malingering? And how does man flu differ from flu?

Man flu could refer to a number of respiratory infections a cold, flu, even a mild case of COVID. So its difficult to compare man flu with flu.

But for simplicity, lets say man flu is actually a cold. If thats the case, man flu and flu have some similar features.

Both are caused by viruses (but different ones). Both are improved with rest, fluids, and if needed painkillers, throat lozenges or decongestants to manage symptoms.

Both can share similar symptoms. Typically, more severe symptoms such as fever, body aches, violent shivering and headaches are more common in flu (but sometimes occur in colds). Meanwhile sore throats, runny noses, congestion and sneezing are more common in colds. A cough is common in both.

Flu is a more serious and sometimes fatal respiratory infection caused by the influenza virus. Colds are caused by various viruses such as rhinoviruses, adenoviruses, and common cold coronaviruses, and are rarely serious. Colds tend to start gradually while flu tends to start abruptly.

Flu can be detected with laboratory or at-home tests. Man flu is not an official diagnosis.

Severe flu symptoms may be prevented with a vaccine, while cold symptoms cannot.

Serious flu infections may also be prevented or treated with antiviral drugs such as Tamiflu. There are no antivirals for colds.

Again, lets assume man flu is a cold. Do men really have worse colds than women? The picture is complicated.

One study, with the title Man flu is not a thing, did in fact show there were differences in mens and womens symptoms.

This study looked at symptoms of acute rhinosinusitis. Thats inflammation of the nasal passages and sinuses, which would explain a runny or stuffy nose, a sinus headache or face pain.

When researchers assessed participants at the start of the study, men and women had similar symptoms. But by days five and eight of the study, women had fewer or less-severe symptoms. In other words, women had recovered faster.

But when participants rated their own symptoms, we saw a somewhat different picture. Women rated their symptoms worse than how the researchers rated them at the start, but said they recovered more quickly.

All this suggests men were not exaggerating their symptoms and did indeed recover more slowly. It also suggests women feel their symptoms more strongly at the start.

Its not straightforward to tease out whats going on biologically.

There are differences in immune responses between men and women that provide a plausible reason for worse symptoms in men.

For instance, women generally produce antibodies more efficiently, so they respond more effectively to vaccination. Other aspects of womens immune system also appear to work more strongly.

So why do women tend to have stronger immune responses overall? Thats probably partly because women have two X chromosomes while men have one. X chromosomes carry important immune function genes. This gives women the benefit of immune-related genes from two different chromosomes.

Oestrogen (the female sex hormone) also seems to strengthen the immune response, and as levels vary throughout the lifespan, so does the strength of womens immune systems.

Men are certainly more likely to die from some infectious diseases, such as COVID. But the picture is less clear with other infections such as the flu, where the incidence and mortality between men and women varies widely between countries and particular flu subtypes and outbreaks.

Infection rates and outcomes in men and women can also depend on the way a virus is transmitted, the persons age, and social and behavioural factors.

For instance, women seem to be more likely to practice protective behaviours such as washing their hands, wearing masks or avoiding crowded indoor spaces. Women are also more likely to seek medical care when ill.

Some evidence suggests men are not over-reporting symptoms, and may take longer to clear an infection. So they may experience man flu more harshly than women with a cold.

So cut the men in your life some slack. If they are sick, gender stereotyping is unhelpful, and may discourage men from seeking medical advice.

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Whats the difference between man flu and flu? Hint: men may not be exaggerating - The Conversation

In scientific experiments designed to assess the threat from H5N1 avian flu in the milk of infected cows, researchers today reported that the virus can bind to both avian and human-type cell receptors but doesn't easily spread through respiratory routes.

The research team, from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, two universities in Japan, and Texas A&M Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Laboratory,detailed its findings today inNature.

So far, H5N1 has been confirmed on at least 140 dairy farms since March, with infections identified in four dairy workers. Since the virus first emerged in dairy cattle, scientists have been closely watching for changes in the virus that would signal a greater pandemic threat and conducting experiments to gauge infectivity and transmission.

In one set of experiments, researchers dripped milk from infected cows into the noses of mice and ferrets, which caused severe disease in the animals. Ferrets are often used to examine potential influenza A transmission patterns in people, because the animals show similar clinical symptoms and immune responses.

In the intranasal experiments, researchers compared the infectivity of three different viruses: H5N1 from cows, a Vietnamese H5N1 strain, and seasonal H1N1. Mice receiving the H5N1 viruses had high virus levels in respiratory and non-respiratory organs, including mammary tissues and muscles, but H1N1 was found only in respiratory tissues. The group also found that the virus can spread from mice mothers to their pups, likely via infected milk.

In ferrets, H5N1 was found only in the respiratory system.

"Together, our pathogenicity studies in mice and ferrets revealed that HPAI H5N1 derived from lactating dairy cattle may induce severe disease after oral ingestion or respiratory infection, and infection by either the oral or respiratory route can lead to systemic spread of virus to non-respiratory tissues including the eye, mammary gland, teat and/or muscle," the group wrote.

Our study demonstrates that bovine H5N1 viruses may differ from previously circulating HPAI [highly pathogenic avian influenza] H5N1 viruses by possessing dual human/avian-type receptor-binding specificity with limited respiratory droplet transmission in ferrets.

The group also found that mice can become sick after drinking even a small amount of raw milk from an infected cow, a finding that some of the same researchers had reported in a May research letter to the New England Journal of Medicine.

In yet another set of experiments, researchers mixed the H5N1 virus from cows with different types of receptors, which the virus uses to enter cells. They found that the virus can bind to receptors that can recognize both avian and human influenza viruses, which adds more evidence that the virus may be adapting to human hosts and that it may have the ability to bind to cells in the human upper respiratory tract.

The team wrote, "Collectively, our study demonstrates that bovine H5N1 viruses may differ from previously circulating HPAI [highly pathogenic avian influenza] H5N1 viruses by possessing dual human/avian-type receptor-binding specificity with limited respiratory droplet transmission in ferrets."

Another big question about the virus is how well it can spread through the air. To gauge transmission, researchers placed H5N1-infected ferrets in cages that were near, but not touching, the cages of uninfected ferrets. None of the four exposed ferrets got sick or tested positive for the virus. However, follow-up tests found that one ferret had antibodies to H5N1.

When they did the same experiment with seasonal flu, they found efficient noncontact spread.

Yoshihiro Kawaoka, PhD, a group leader and professor of pathobiological sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said in a news release from the school, that the finding "suggests that the exposed ferret was infected, indicating some level of airborne transmissibility but not a substantial level."

Ian Brown, PhD, a group leader in avian virology with the UK-based Pirbright Institute, said data from mice doesn't always directly correlate to humans, but the new work on predicted cell binding offers new evidence for wider attachment, including cells lining the upper airway of humans. However, he added that more study is needed to understand the underlying factors.

"Overall the study findings are not unexpected but this report provides further science insight to an evolving situation, that emphasises the need for strong monitoring and surveillance in affected or exposed populations, both animals and humans to track future risk,"he said.

Ed Hutchinson, PhD, senior lecturer at the MRC-University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research, said it's notable that both H5N1 viruses can spread through the bodies of infected animals, including the mammary glands."Now that were looking, it seems like spreading into the mammary glands is something that any of these highly pathogenic H5N1 viruses could do," he said. The results of the ferret respiratory transmission experiments are somewhat reassuring, but he said there is still reason for concern.

It seems like spreading into the mammary glands is something that any of these highly pathogenic H5N1 viruses could do.

When the researchers compared bovine H5N1 with the other H5N1 strain, they saw some evidence that the bovine strain had already started to gain some of the properties linked to the ability to spread through respiratory transmission in humans.

"Although it is good news that cow flu cannot yet do this, these findings reinforce the need for urgent and determined action to closely monitor this outbreak and to try and bring it under control as soon as possible," Hutchinson said.

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Animal experiments shed more light on behavior of H5N1 from dairy cows - University of Minnesota Twin Cities