Cambodia has reported another case of H5N1 bird flu, bringing the total number of cases in the country this year to nine, according to the country’s Health Ministry.
A 16-year-old girl from Chantrea in the southeastern Svay Rieng province was confirmed to have H5N1 bird flu, with symptoms of fever, cough, sore throat, and shortness of breath.
This is the second such case in less than a month in the Southeast Asian country, local news website VietnamPlus reported.
"Laboratory results from the National Institute of Public Health showed on Saturday that the girl was positive for H5N1 virus," the statement released late Saturday said.
The patient, who is in severe condition, is getting intensive care from a team of doctors, it added. Health authorities are looking into the source of the infection and are examining any suspected cases or people who have been in contact with the victim in order to prevent an outbreak, the statement added.
Among the nine human cases of H5N1 bird flu so far this year were eight children, one of whom died, and an adult. All the patients reportedly had a history of exposure to sick or dead poultry prior to their illness.
The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has confirmed three more H5N1 avian influenza outbreaks in dairy cattle, raising the national total to 181 from 13 states.
The latest confirmations are from Colorado, South Dakota, and Texas.
In other updates, APHIS also reported more detections in wild birds in mammals. The group reported about more than 100 more H5N1 detections in wild birds across several states. Some were waterfowl taken by hunters and were sampled last fall. However, several were agency-harvested birds from Colorado's Weld County, which has been a recent hot spot for dairy cow outbreaks, poultry outbreaks, and human illnesses. Species in Weld County that tested positive included doves, sparrows, starlings, and pigeons.
Regarding mammals, APHIS over the past few days has reported 27 more detections, raising its confirmed number to 373. Most of the newly confirmed positives involve deer mice and house mice from Weld County in Colorado. The group also included three domestic cats from Larimer County in Colorado, plus a rabbit and a vole from Weld County.
A small study in Texas suggests that human bird flu cases are being missed on dairy farms where the H5N1 virus has taken off in cows, sparking an unprecedented nationwide outbreak.
The finding adds some data to what many experts have suspected amid the outbreak. But the authors of the study, led by researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, went further, stating bluntly why the US is failing to fully surveil, let alone contain, a virus with pandemic potential.
"Due to fears that research might damage dairy businesses, studies like this one have been few," the authors write in the topline summary of their study, which was posted online as a pre-print and had not been peer-reviewed.
The study authors, led by Gregory Gray, were invited to two undisclosed dairy farms in Texas that experienced H5N1 outbreaks in their herds starting in early and late March, respectively. The researchers had a previously approved research protocol to study novel respiratory viruses on dairy farms, easing the ability to quickly begin the work.
Rare study
"Farm A" had 7,200 cows and 180 workers. Illnesses began on March 6, and nearly 5 percent of the herd was estimated to be affected during the outbreak. "Farm B" had 8,200 cows and 45 workers. After illnesses began on March 20, an estimated 14 percent of the herd was affected.
The researchers first visited Farm A on April 3 and Farm B on April 4, collecting swabs and samples at each. Based on the previously approved protocol, they were limited to taking nasal swabs and blood samples from no more than 10 workers per farm. On Farm A, 10 workers provided nasal swabs and blood samples. On Farm B, only seven agreed to give nasal swabs, and four gave blood samples.
While swabs from cows, milk, a dead bird, and a sample of fecal slurry showed signs of H5N1, all of the nasal swabs from the 14 humans were negative. However, when researchers looked for H5N1-targeting antibodies in their blood—an indicator that they were previously infected—two of the 14, about 14 percent, were positive.
Both of the workers with previous infections, a man and a woman, were from Farm A. And both reported having flu-like symptoms. The man worked inside cattle corrals, close to the animals, and he reported having a cough at the time the samples were taken. The woman, meanwhile, worked in the cafeteria on the farm and reported recently recovering from an illness that included fever, cough, and sore throat. She noted that other people on the farm had similar respiratory illnesses around when she did.
The finding suggests human cases of H5N1 are going undetected. Moreover, managing to find evidence of two undetected infections in a sample of just 14 workers suggests it may not be hard to find more. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that around 200,000 people work with livestock in the US.
A “compelling case”
To date, the virus has infected at least 175 dairy farms in 13 states. The official tally of human cases in the dairy outbreak is 14: four in dairy farm workers and 10 in workers on poultry farms with infections linked to the dairy outbreak.
"I am very confident there are more people being infected than we know about," Gray told KFF, which first reported on the study. "Largely, that’s because our surveillance has been so poor."
Known infections in humans have all been mild so far. But experts are anxious that with each new infection, the wily H5N1 virus is getting new opportunities to adapt further to humans. If the virus evolves to cause more severe disease and spread from human to human, it could spark another pandemic.
Federal officials are also worried about this potential threat. In a press briefing Tuesday, Nirav Shah, the CDC's principal deputy director, announced a $5 million effort to vaccinate farm workers—but against seasonal flu.
Shah explained that the CDC is concerned that if farm workers are infected with H5N1 and the seasonal flu at the same time, the viruses could exchange genetic segments—a process called reassortment. This could give rise to the pandemic threat experts are worried about. By vaccinating the workers against the seasonal flu, it could potentially prevent the viruses from comingling in one person, Shah suggested.
The US does have a bird flu-specific vaccine available. But in the briefing, Shah said that the use of that vaccine in farm workers is not planned for now, though there's still active discussion on the possibility. The lack of severe disease and no documented human-to-human transmission from H5N1 infections both argue against deploying a new vaccine, Shah said. "There has to be a strong and compelling case," he added. Shah also suggested that the agency expects vaccine uptake to be low among farm workers.
A 15-year-old girl from southeast Cambodia's Prey Veng province died of H5N1 avian influenza on Tuesday, the Ministry of Health said in a press statement.
The patient lived in Kanhchriech district's Por Marinh village.
Health experts were looking into the source of the infection and examining any suspected cases or people who have been in contact with the victim in order to prevent an outbreak in the community, said the statement.
According to the ministry, a total of 10 human cases of H5N1 bird flu have been recorded so far this year.
As bird flu spreads in cats, cows and other animals, it has more opportunity to adapt to easily infect humans.
(Excerpts)
The Colorado Department of Public Health announced on August 9 that six cat infections in the state have been confirmed this year. Two of those detections were in samples collected in May, but at least three were in samples collected in July. What’s particularly worrying about the new announcement is that two of the infected cats were indoor animals.
_________
In Colorado the disease appears particularly pervasive: more than eight million commercial chickens to date have died because of the outbreak, more than 60 dairy herds have confirmed cases of avian influenza, and 10 human infections have also been confirmed.
__________
If the first concern is the sheer quantity of avian influenza virus in the environment, the second is the number and variety of animals it is continuing to infect unchecked. Each new infection represents an opportunity for the dairy strain of the avian influenza virus to meet and mingle with whatever other flu viruses are present in the new host. Flu “viruses are notorious for developing mutations or taking genes from other viruses,” Barron says. “At what point is there risk that the virus changes and now makes people severely ill?”
As bird flu spreads in cats, cows and other animals, it has more opportunity to adapt to easily infect humans.
(Excerpts)
The Colorado Department of Public Health announced on August 9 that six cat infections in the state have been confirmed this year. Two of those detections were in samples collected in May, but at least three were in samples collected in July. What’s particularly worrying about the new announcement is that two of the infected cats were indoor animals.
_________
In Colorado the disease appears particularly pervasive: more than eight million commercial chickens to date have died because of the outbreak, more than 60 dairy herds have confirmed cases of avian influenza, and 10 human infections have also been confirmed.
__________
If the first concern is the sheer quantity of avian influenza virus in the environment, the second is the number and variety of animals it is continuing to infect unchecked. Each new infection represents an opportunity for the dairy strain of the avian influenza virus to meet and mingle with whatever other flu viruses are present in the new host. Flu “viruses are notorious for developing mutations or taking genes from other viruses,” Barron says. “At what point is there risk that the virus changes and now makes people severely ill?”
We were strongly critical of the Chinese Communist Party over its handling of the Covid outbreak, but I think we have to make an apology. It turns out that the US government is even worse with its deliberate cultivation of the nascent bird flu epidemic.
That certainly appears to be the case, to me it is astonishing the amount of freedom the US government has yielded to the H5N1 bird flu...I was shocked when I first read that indoor cats have caught the virus...Are there human carriers now or did the cats interact with infected mice who came from outside?...Or have the cats simply got out of the house once or twice accidentally and if so what are the odds an indoor cat catches H5N1 bird flu that one time it gets out of the house?...Perhaps H5N1 bird flu is more widespread in many various animal species in the US, more than currently understood, the revelations written in that article are very concerning...
A man in Missouri has become the first American to be diagnosed with H5N1 bird flu without coming into contact with animals, in a potentially worrying development.
They are the 14th person to become infected in the US since the strain hit livestock earlier this year - but the first not to have been directly exposed to an infected bird or cow.
It is still unclear how the Missourian was infected, but experts have been warning for months against drinking raw milk because of fears the virus can spread to people via this route.
Another option is that he caught the virus from someone who was sick - though state health officials insist 'the risk of sustained transmission or infection among the general public remains low'.
After being hospitalized on August 22, the unnamed Missouri patient was tested for a battery of illnesses, and the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS) reported that he had the H5N1 virus.
He told officials that he had not been exposed to animals, which means they are unsure where he got the virus from. The patient had several 'underlying medical conditions' but recovered in the hospital and was discharged and sent home.
Federal officials have confirmed that three California dairy herds have suffered outbreaks of H5N1 bird flu, due most likely to the transportation of cattle and not exposure to diseased birds.
Health officials announced last week that they suspected cows at three Central Valley dairies had contracted the illness, and were awaiting testing for confirmation. On Tuesday, officials said those tests revealed that the strain of virus that infected California herds was nearly identical to that found in Colorado dairy herds — suggesting the infections were the result of interstate transfer of cattle.
The B3.13 genetic sequence found in the infected cows was clearly the result of “anthropogenic movement; essentially zero chance it was an independent spill from wild birds into these dairies,” said Bryan Richards, the Emerging Disease Coordinator at the U.S. Geological Survey’s National Wildlife Health Center. “So, if anyone is trying to blame wild birds: Nope!”
In a statement from the California Department of Food and Agriculture, officials said there were no confirmed human cases of H5N1 bird flu in the state, and neither the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention nor state officials see this development as a significant public health threat; the risk to humans is considered low.
