The CDC has just officially confirmed the first human case of the H5N1 bird flu virus in the U.S.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that a Colorado man tested positive and did not divulge any additional information at this time besides his age being under 40.
The CDC mentioned in their alert that, “This case occurred in a person who had direct exposure to poultry and was involved in the culling (depopulating) of poultry with presumptive H5N1 bird flu. The patient reported fatigue for a few days as their only symptom and has since recovered.”
“The patient is being isolated and treated with the influenza antiviral drug oseltamivir. While it is possible the detection of H5 bird flu in this specimen is a result of surface contamination of the nasal membrane, that can’t be determined at this point and the positive test result meets the criteria for an H5 case. The appropriate public health response at this time is to assume this is an infection and take actions to contain and treat,” the alert continued.
Apparently the CDC attempted to reassure the public that although a human case has been detected, the threat level of H5N1 remains “low” however, “people who have job-related or recreational exposures to infected birds are at higher risk of infection should take appropriate precautions outlined in CDC guidance.”
As of April, the bird flu virus has been detected in both commercial and backyard birds within 29 states as well as wild birds within 34 states.
And while the Colorado case is the first within the U.S., it is the second known human case across the globe.
The first human case of the H5N1 virus was detected back in December 2021 in the United Kingdom from an individual who raised birds that became infected with the virus, but they themselves never experienced symptoms.
“More than 880 human infections with earlier H5N1 viruses have been reported since 2003 worldwide, however, the predominant H5N1 viruses now circulating among birds globally are different from earlier H5N1 viruses,” the CDC said.
Unfortunately, as a result of the increase of bird flu, millions of poultry birds have been culled across the country with the hope of stopping the spread of the highly contagious virus.
In March alone, over five million chickens were slaughtered at an egg factory in Iowa.
“The culling has been repeated at chicken and turkey farms across Iowa and 28 other states from Maine to Utah. More than 22m birds have been killed in an attempt to contain the outbreak – the majority in Iowa, the US’s biggest producer of eggs. The slaughter of 5.3m hens at Rembrandt is the largest culling at any factory farm in the country,” The Guardian reports.
