In just the past few days, it seems as if the world has become serious about H5N1 influenza, otherwise known as bird flu. There’s even informed speculation by some qualified scientists that human-to-human transmission is likely already occurring. Food safety and public health are not yet big concerns.
Raw milk is more risky than ever, but pasteurized dairy products, eggs, and poultry are all safe to eat. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention rates the current public health risk as low but oversees the situation and works with states to monitor people with animal exposures. One example of the world getting serious is Finland taking delivery of 20,000 doses of vaccine for its citizens who are at risk of exposure to an avian influenza strain spreading among farmed and wild animals.
Health officials in Finland expect to be the first country to take such a step as concerns about the threat the virus poses to people intensify. The Finland vaccine campaign uses the doses of poultry farmers, veterinarians, scientists who study the virus, and those who work on fur farms housing animals like mink and fox, which have been subject to outbreaks. In the United States, most attention has surrounded the four humans infected with Bird flu since early 2022.
The first human case involved a Colorado poultry worker, reported on April 28, 2022. The other three human cases stemmed from exposure to dairy cows during April and May this year. The four human cases in the U.
S. reportedly had .
