How did the three people presumed to be infected with bird flu in Colorado get infected?
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention says that three presumptive cases of bird flu were reported by health authorities in Colorado.
Three individuals in Colorado are suspected of having infections on the H5 bird flu virus according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). State health officials reported to the agency that preliminary testing showed that the three had a novel type of influenza which is presumed to be bird flu. The CDC is performing confirmatory testing on samples send by Colorado officials.
Earlier this month the fourth case of Bird Flu in the ongoing multistate outbreak was confirmed in Colorado. Like the other three cases, two in Michigan and one in Texas, that individual was a worker on a dairy farm. However, the three presumptive bird flu cases reported on Friday were among poultry workers.
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How did the three people presumed to be infected with bird flu in Colorado get infected?
All three of the people presumed to be infected with bird flu were exposed through contact with infected animals. According to the CDC, they were culling infected birds at a poultry farm where there had been an outbreak of the highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1.
All three of the poultry workers experienced mild symptoms and the risk to the general public remains low said the CDC. A team is being dispatched to Colorado to aid the investigation into the new infections.
“There are no signs of unexpected increases in flu activity otherwise in Colorado, or in other states affected by H5 bird flu outbreaks in cows and poultry,” the agency said in a statement.
Currently H5N1 avian influenza has been detected in 151 dairy herds in twelve states. Nearly 100 million cases have been reported in poultry across 48 states. The main source behind the spread of the global outbreak of H5N1 bird flu has been wild birds.
Cases have been detected in other species of both land and water mammals as well according to the CDC. These infections are believed to occur when mammals, wild, domestic or feral, eat presumably infected birds or poultry.