Four new human cases of bird flu confirmed in the United States

Photo: Darryl Dyck The Canadian Press An epidemic of avian flu was spotted in the spring in the United States, with an unusual fact: this disease which initially mainly affected poultry and birds now also affects cows.

France Media Agency in Los Angeles

Posted at 7:31 p.m.

• United States

Four new human cases of bird flu were confirmed in the United States by health authorities on Sunday, bringing to eight the number of people infected since the spring by this disease of animal origin.

The infected people are four “farm workers” working on the same poultry farm, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) explained in a press release.

A fifth case is also suspected and must still be analyzed to be confirmed.

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The risk to the American population remains “low”, however, they stressed the CDC. Infected workers suffer from “conjunctivitis” and “flu symptoms”.

An outbreak of avian flu was spotted in the spring in the United States, with an unusual development: this disease which initially mainly affected poultry and birds now also affects cows.

A first infection in Texas, in the southern United States, was announced on April 1st. This was the first known worldwide case of avian flu in a human via a cow.

Two other cases were subsequently reported in Michigan.

And at the beginning of July, another case was identified in Colorado on a cow farm. This western US state is now seeing the disease spread among both livestock and poultry.

Experts are concerned about the growing number of mammals infected with the disease, although cases in humans remain rare. They fear that high circulation could facilitate a mutation of the virus which would allow it to pass from one human to another.

The CDC reiterated its call for precaution for workers in contact with infected cows or poultry.

Additional genetic testing needs to be done on these new cases in Colorado, to detect any possible changes to the virus that could result in authorities' “change in risk assessment” for the population.

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