Top brass at the CDC, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and other agencies shared a roadmap for preventing and understanding human infection with bird flu, along with their plan for developing countermeasures against the virus that has infected more than 120 dairy herds across a dozen states.
Looking for Asymptomatic Infection
To date, more than 690 people have been monitored following exposure to the virus and 51 people have been tested. Through established testing mechanisms, only three people have been diagnosed with the highly pathogenic avian influenza A (HPAI) H5N1 virus associated with the outbreak in dairy cattle (one person in Texasopens in a new tab or window and two in Michiganopens in a new tab or window), said Demetre Daskalakis, MD, MPH, director of CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, during a call with reporters on Tuesday. CDC continues to support states in monitoring for H5N1 in humans, including by providing technical assistance for a seroprevalence study conducted by Michigan’s Department of Health and Human Services, the goal of which is to determine whether asymptomatic infections have occurred among people working with infected cattle.