Forbes An ongoing bird flu outbreak among U.S. dairy cows has led to three confirmed human cases in dairy workers, and although there aren’t any confirmed cases of human-to-human transmission, experts warn safety measures like masks, vaccines and safety goggles will be needed if a pandemic is declared due to the virus’s deadly nature.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told Forbes it’s monitoring human and animal exposure to H5N1 bird flu and watching the situation carefully, though “the current public health risk is low.”
Although rare, bird flu typically affects humans who’ve come in contact with infected birds, and there aren’t any confirmed cases of human-to-human transmission.
The virus may spread from animals to humans through airborne transmission and through contact with infected surfaces, Dr. Jessica Justman, an infectious disease specialist and epidemiologist at Columbia University, told Forbes, though the exact transmission process isn’t fully understood.
Former CDC director Robert Redfield—who helped oversee the agency during the COVID-19 pandemic—told NewsNation earlier this month a bird flu pandemic is inevitable, so “it’s not a question of if, it’s a question of when.”
Redfield brought up bird flu’s high death rate as a cause for concern if a pandemic were to be declared: Of the 889 confirmed human cases between 2003 and May, 52% resulted in death, according to data from the World Health Organization.