A person in Texas has tested positive for bird flu after encountering a potentially infected dairy cow, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Monday.
The federal health agency said the patient had experienced only one symptom — eye redness “consistent with conjunctivitis” — and was recovering.
“The patient was told to isolate and is being treated with an antiviral drug for flu,” the CDC said. “This infection does not change the H5N1 bird flu human health risk assessment for the U.S. general public, which CDC considers to be low.”
The report comes one week after the U.S. Department of Agriculture confirmed a bird flu outbreak among dairy cows in Texas and Kansas.
The USDA discovered the disease in a Michigan dairy herd recently enlarged with cows from Texas.
The infection reported Monday is the second known human case in the United States, following a 2022 illness in Colorado caused by exposure to infected poultry.
Also known as avian flu, bird flu is a rare type A influenza virus commonly spread by wild birds. Health officials first identified it during a 1997 outbreak in Hong Kong.
Exhibiting symptoms similar to those of the common cold, it is fatal to poultry and can kill human beings if left untreated after two days.
The CDC said there is no danger of the recent infection spreading through the commercial milk supply due to the pasteurization that dairy products undergo before hitting stories.
However, the agency also released interim recommendations urging Americans to “avoid unprotected exposures to sick or dead animals including wild birds, poultry, other domesticated birds, and other wild or domesticated animals (including cattle), as well as with animal carcasses, raw milk, feces (poop), litter, or materials contaminated by birds or other animals” suspected of infection.
“People should not prepare or eat uncooked or undercooked food or related uncooked food products, such as unpasteurized (raw) milk, or products made from raw milk such as cheeses, from animals with confirmed or suspected HPAI A(H5N1)-virus infection (avian influenza or bird flu),” the CDC said.
The agency said it would work with the USDA, the Food and Drug Administration and state health departments to monitor human cases.
The World Health Organization reports that at least 793 people have died from various strains of bird flu in China and the Western Pacific Region since early 2013.
Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly reported the number of fatal bird flu infections.
• Sean Salai can be reached at ssalai@washingtontimes.com.
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