A person has been infected with H5N1 bird flu in the US state of Texas. The Texas Health Department reported this on Monday. According to authorities, the man or woman has been in direct contact with dairy cattle on a farm in Texas, where cows were suspected of having a bird flu infection.
The patient presented last week with complaints of red, irritated eyes (corresponding to conjunctivitis) as the only symptom. After a positive test, this person was advised to self-isolate to prevent infecting others. The man or woman is being treated with the virus inhibitor oseltamivir and is now recovering.
For the time being, the American health service CDC emphasizes that the risk for the general American population remains low. However, people in close or prolonged contact with infected birds or livestock are at greater risk of infection and should take protective measures. Consumption of raw milk products is not recommended.
The infection of the first human in the American outbreak does not come as a surprise, but it is worrying because it is another step towards a form of bird flu that people can transmit to each other. Last week it was reported that bird flu infection had been detected for the first time in dairy farms in Texas and Kansas. Meanwhile, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) reports confirmation that the virus has infected livestock on farms in Texas (7), Kansas (2), Michigan (1) and New Mexico (1), while a farm in Idaho has a “ suspected” outbreak. In Minnesota, goats died from the virus. Most likely, wild birds found dead on some farms have contaminated the animals’ feed or water.
The American outbreak is reminiscent of the outbreak of bird flu (with the H7N7 variant) that occurred in Dutch poultry farms in 2003. At the time, more than 450 people reported complaints and the infection was confirmed in a total of 89 people. Most then had mild symptoms such as conjunctivitis and flu-like symptoms. One man, a veterinarian, died of pneumonia due to infection with the virus. During that outbreak, there were indications that the virus had spread on a small scale within households, because housemates also became ill.
The big difference between then and now was the source of contamination. The H7N7 virus came from poultry, the human infection with the H5N1 virus in the US probably occurred via cows. The risk is one step higher, because the idea is that by adapting to mammals, the virus can also become more contagious to humans.
The H5N1 avian flu virus has been circulating among wild birds since 2020 and has since spread to almost the entire world. What makes this epidemic different from previous bird flu outbreaks is that the waves of disease are no longer seasonal. In the last two years, the virus regularly jumped from wild birds to wild mammals, such as foxes, martens and especially marine mammals.
The human infection now reported was not the first in the US. In 2022, a man in that country was also infected with H5N1 bird flu. It concerned a prisoner in Colorado whose job was to kill infected wild birds.
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Tags: Human contamination bird flu outbreak
