Leslie is gone so I’ll cover the science, diseases, and medicine topics.
A third farmworker contracted the bird flu, and the second contracted it in Michigan.
The first person in Michigan and the farmworker in Texas essentially had pink eye.
This Michigan farmworker developed a respiratory illness. From MLive.com:
The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services announced Thursday, May 30 that a person who “worked closely” with infected cows tested positive for influenza (H5) – the virus associated with a strain of avian flu that’s been spreading for the past two years.The farmworker, who works at a different farm than a case announced last week, developed a cough, eye discomfort and watery discharge, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. The person was given antivirals and is recovering in isolation.This is the first H5 case in the United States, the CDC said, where a human has developed respiratory illness symptoms. In other cases, people experienced eye infections or fatigue.No other workers from the same farm have reported symptoms, but they are being monitored.
Dr. Natasha Bagdasarian, Michigan’s chief medical executive, said the state has “not seen signs of sustained human-to-human transmission.”
Therefore, the public health risk is low.
The sickened farmworker had direct contact with an infected cow, and the other Michigan farmworker became sick when milk from an infected cow splashed into their eye.
“Neither individual was wearing full personal protective equipment (PPE),” explained Bagdasarian. “This tells us that direct exposure to infected livestock poses a risk to humans, and that PPE is an important tool in preventing spread among individuals who work on dairy and poultry farms.”
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