Signs of recent bird flu infection were found in three US veterinarians, two of whom had no known prior exposure, researchers said, suggesting potentially wider spread of the dangerous virus than has been suspected.
One of the veterinarians worked with cows in Georgia and South Carolina, where no cases in cattle had been reported at the time, according to a study published Thursday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Two had no known exposure to infected animals, the report said, and none of the three had influenza-like symptoms or conjunctivitis that are common among most infected people.
Efforts by the Trump administration to cut budgets in key health agencies have raised questions about data-sharing protocols, including the speed at which information is being released. The rise of bird flu has been accompanied by the disappearance of eggs from grocery shelves and spiking prices.
More than a dozen US states have reported cattle infected with H5N1 bird flu, and the study indicates that the virus has reached unknown places, animals and people. While human infections have been rare during the current outbreak, with a single death, the bird flu virus has caused hundreds of deaths in decades past, and officials have said it warrants close monitoring.
This week, Nevada confirmed that a dairy worker was infected with a form of bird flu, called D 1.1, known to circulate in wild birds. The strain was linked to the death in January of a Louisiana person who was likely infected through contact with a backyard poultry flocks, health officials said. The same version was also found in a 13-year-old girl in Canada who was hospitalized last year due to the infection.
In November, US health officials updated testing guidance for farm workers, advising them to be tested even if they didn’t exhibit symptoms after exposure to sick animals. However, officials at the World Health Organization said Wednesday that they’re lacking data on bird flu’s spread in the US since President Donald Trump ordered the country to pull out of the group.
The CDC report focused on a September survey of 150 veterinarians who had been exposed to cattle at least three months before being tested. The tests looked for immune antibodies to bird flu that show a person has been infected with a specific virus. The three veterinarians who showed signs of infection worked with multiple types of animals, including dairy and nondairy cattle and poultry.
US health officials have said that the threat to the general public from bird flu remains low. They suggest that people preventively take the antiviral medication Tamiflu and wear protective equipment when working with infected animals. Hospital systems are also advised to test people hospitalized with influenza A — the overall category of virus that includes bird flu — to spot cases.
Photo: A lab manager prepares samples for testing for bird flu in Ithaca, New York./Bloomberg
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