Washington Post/Opinion The drumbeat that bird flu is coming closer to humans is growing ever louder. Health officials must step up their game in tracking and preparing for this virus before it spreads further.
Last month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed a case of the illness, also known as H5N1, in a Missouri resident. This was the 14th human case in the United States in 2024 and the 15th since the current outbreak began. Unlike previous cases and the two others that have since been reported in California, all of which involved people working closely with infected poultry or dairy cows, the Missouri patient had no known animal exposure. The possibility of ongoing human-to-human transmission has heightened alarm among public health experts, especially as the Northern Hemisphere heads into respiratory virus season.