Is bird flu spreading among people? Data gaps leave researchers in the dark

Nature Researchers are anxiously awaiting data from the midwestern state about a mysterious bird flu infection in a person who had no known contact with potential animal carriers of the disease. The data could reveal whether the ongoing US bird flu outbreak in dairy cattle has reached a dreaded turning point: the emergence of a virus capable of spreading from human to human. Thus far, data from the mysterious infection are few and far between: small snippets of the H5N1 virus’s genome sequence and an incomplete infection timeline. Ratcheting up concerns is the fact that no Missouri dairy farms have reported a bird flu outbreak; this might be because there really are no infections, or because the state does not require farmers to test their cows for the virus.

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