Scientists have warned that the current bird flu outbreak could be just steps behind a new pandemic, according to reports. While the new subtype of H5N1 avian flu in migratory birds emerged in 2020, the spread of the virus this year to 132 dairy herds in 12 US states has signaled a change that the virus could become transmissible between humans. Scott Hensley, a professor of microbiology at the University of Pennsylvania, said to Reuters : “It almost seems like a pandemic unfolding in slow motion.
Right now, the threat is pretty low...
but that could change in a heartbeat.” Call for ‘high risk’ Americans to be vaccinated as bird flu surges Finland becomes the first country to start bird flu vaccinations for humans The sooner global health officials take steps to protect people against bird flu by starting vaccine development, the lower the risk of a pandemic similar to Covid breaking out. Currently, state testing efforts are inconsistent and federal surveillance of the virus is limited to testing dairy cows before they cross state lines.
Testing of people exposed to sick cattle is insufficient, experts said. Dr. Jeanne Marrazzo, director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said to Reuters that the current surveillance for humans is “very, very limited.
” Marazzo said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)’s human flu surveillance network is “really a passive reporting, passive presentation mechanism.” While the US Dep.
