CDC Reports First Case of Human Bird Flu Contracted Without Exposure to Cows or Poultry

CDC Reports First Case of Human Bird Flu Contracted Without Exposure to Cows or Poultry

In our last few reports on Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI), otherwise known as ‘bird flu,’ ten Colorado poultry workers had developed symptoms of bird flu (mainly pink eye), and California dairy cows were reported to be infected.

No cases of human infection with bird flu that couldn’t be traced to exposures to sick animals had ever been reported. However, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) now says a patient in Missouri was hospitalized with bird flu despite having no known contact with animals.

The patient, who had underlying medical conditions, was successfully treated with antiviral medications at the hospital and has since been discharged, according to the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS).

This marks the 14th person (in three states) to contract bird flu in the U.S. this year — and the first infection to occur without any reported exposure to sick or infected animals, the CDC alert stated.

The prior 13 cases came after exposure to dairy cows or poultry.

Dr. Benjamin Anderson, assistant professor in the Department of Environmental and Global Health at the University of Florida, said the fact that an individual has tested positive for H5 without any reported animal exposure is “very concerning,” but noted that very little is known about the case.

“We don’t know if the individual had indirect exposure to people or products from agricultural settings,” he told Fox News Digital.

The good news in this case is that there has been no “bloom” of bird flu infections in the region, meaning sustainable human-to-human infection has not been achieved.

It’s a promising sign that since the Missouri patient was hospitalized, there has not been a big bloom of flu-like illness in the state. “I don’t think there’s a whole iceberg out there that we don’t see,” says [Jennifer Nuzzo, an epidemiologist who leads the Pandemic Center at Brown University’s School of Public Health], but more details about the case would put her and other experts at ease.

Meanwhile, the New York Times takes the opportunity to gin up fear and push the “wet market COVID origin” theory in one astonishing article.

As bird flu spreads to every corner of the globe, so-called wet markets like these are worrying public health experts. They are the petri dishes in which the next pandemic virus might emerge, jumping from bird to bird, or to other animals held just a few feet away, until finally adapting to humans.

A leading theory suggests that the coronavirus pandemic began in a live animal market in Wuhan, China. If a similarly contagious virus were to evolve in a New York wet market, some experts fear there would be little to stop it from marching rapidly through the city. Tourists from all over the world might carry it back to their homes.

Indeed, some animal markets in the city already have experienced bird flu outbreaks, and operators have had to kill hundreds of birds. New York State inspectors closed seven establishments that were hit by bird flu in 2022 and 2023 for five days on average, but allowed them to reopen after cleaning and disinfection.

Never change, NYT…never change.

In Texas, public health professionals are testing wastewater for traces of the influenza.

H5N1 influenza surfaced in wastewater samples across all 10 Texas cities monitored by the TexWEB teamopens in a new tab or window at the Texas Epidemic Public Health Institute in Houston.

From March 4 through July 15, the group detected H5N1 in 10 of 10 cities, at 22 of 23 sites, and in 100 of 399 samples, Anthony Maresso, PhD, of Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, and colleagues reported in a correspondence piece in the New England Journal of Medicineopens in a new tab or window.

They said the detections have not correlated with influenza-related hospitalizations, nor has the group picked up mutations that would signal adaptation to humans, notably the E627K mutationopens in a new tab or window in the virus’ polymerase basic protein 2 (PB2) gene.

We need to watch the reports in Ohio.  As local Haitians butcher geese and ducks, more cases of human HPAI may soon be reported.

Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.