A second person in the U.S. has been infected with bird flu linked to dairy cows, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services reported Wednesday.
The individual, a farmworker who had regular exposure to infected livestock, had mild symptoms and has recovered, the department said.
“The current health risk to the general public remains low,” Dr. Natasha Bagdasarian, Michigan’s chief medical executive, said in a press release. “We have not seen signs of sustained human-to-human transmission at this point. This is exactly how public health is meant to work, in early detection and monitoring of new and emerging illnesses.”
The Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development confirmed additional cases in cows this week, bringing the total in that state to 19 herds on Wednesday.
Nationally, at least 51 herds in nine states have been affected, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. In addition to herds in Michigan, dairy cattle in Kansas, Colorado, Idaho, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, South Dakota and Texas have also tested positive for bird flu.
Federal health authorities are expected to hold a media briefing on the matter later Wednesday afternoon.
On Tuesday, the CDC’s principal deputy director, Dr. Nirav Shah, asked state and local health authorities in a call to continue monitoring for flu “at enhanced levels” throughout the summer, even though the typical flu season is over and testing for the virus falls to a minimum at this time of year.
The bird flu, also known as H5N1, is a type of influenza A virus.
Shah said that the CDC recommended that states “increase the number of positive influenza A virus samples submitted for subtyping to help detect even rare cases of human H5N1 virus infection in the community,” the agency said in a news release Tuesday.
Since the H5N1 virus was first identified in 1997, there have been just over 900 cases documented globally in humans. More than 50% of those patients died, according to the CDC. But that fatality rate may be an overestimate because cases may also be mild and possibly go undetected.
In March, a dairy worker in Texas was diagnosed with the bird flu. It was the first documented case of the flu spreading from a cow to a human. The man’s only indication that he was sick was that he developed conjunctivitis, or pinkeye. He had none of the typical flu symptoms, such as fever, cough and sneezing, and later recovered.
This is the third case overall in the United States. In 2022, an inmate in Colorado was diagnosed with the virus. The man was working on a commercial farm culling birds suspected to be infected. His only symptom was fatigue, and he recovered with a course of Tamiflu.
There is no evidence at this point that H5N1 is spreading from person to person. None of the people living with the Texas dairy worker became ill.
The CDC recommends that anyone in contact with dairy cattle wear protective equipment, including safety glasses, waterproof aprons and boots that can be sanitized.
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