United States: The World Health Organization (WHO) has asked countries to be extra careful and watch for bird flu after the first case was found in a child in the United States. WHO’s expert Maria Van Kerkhove said that more people around the world have been getting sick with the H5N1 bird flu in recent years.
“What we really need globally, in the US and abroad, is much stronger surveillance in animals: in wild birds, in poultry, in animals that are reported to be potential reservoirs of the virus which includes swine, which include dairy cattle, now we want to know more of the circulation in these animals,” she said.
H5N1 initially hit in 1996 but since year 2020, the incidence in birds has greatly risen, the same scenario as infected mammals.
As reported by the Medicalxpress, this stress has seen many tens of millions of poultry die from the disease, with wild birds and land and marine mammals affected too.
Only a few cases of human infection since the virus broke out in Europe and United States have been serious.
The virus had been reported causing infections in some dairy cattle in many farms in the United States in March this year.
While he said that the risk to the general public is comparatively low, though slightly higher for people who are involved in handling livestock animals inclusive of birds and diaries and what have you.
Last Friday, US authorities announced that a child in California had been confirmed to have been infected with the bird flu virus making him the first in the United States. The child had mild signs and upon being taken for tests, officials of the day-care center reported providing checkups and preventive treatment for exposed contacts. The child was discharged home and treated with flu antivirals.
“This most recent case brings the total number of human H5 bird flu cases in the US in 2024 to 55 with 29 cases in California,” the US Centre for Disease Control said.
According to Van Kerkhove, only two of them had contacted infected animals, the remaining individuals.
People have not been contracting from each other,” However, for each of these human detected cases he wants to have a very intensive investigation process she said.