Bird flu detected in person who had contact with infected dairy cattle in Texas
A person in Texas is being treated for #bird#flu,
the second human case of an illness caused by
a highly virulent virus
that has rampaged through 🔸sickened dairy cows in five states🔸 in recent weeks.
The patient, who experienced eye inflammation as their only symptom, was tested for flu late last week with confirmatory testing performed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention over the weekend.
The patient is being treated with the antiviral drug oseltamivir.
The case does not change the #risk for the general public,
👉which remains low.
The person had direct exposure to dairy cattle presumed to be infected with #avian#influenza, Texas officials said Monday.
The case has alarmed disease trackers monitoring for the worst-case scenario:
♦️human-to-human transmission of the pathogen, which has happened infrequently worldwide and typically among family members engaged in work with animals. ♦️
And it raises questions about whether this pathogen is now more easily transmitted among mammals.
Epidemiologists have been worried about the🔹 growing number of mammals 🔹infected by highly pathogenic avian influenza — commonly known as #HPAI — around the world.
The avian influenza has been spreading around the world since 2020, and has been documented to infect dozens of other mammalian species, but rarely spreads between them.
Last month, HPAI was found in a baby goat in #Minnesota, the first case in U.S. livestock.
