An Australian child has been infected with bird flu. What are the symptoms to look out for?

A second person in the United States has tested positive for avian influenza, aka bird flu, amid an ongoing global outbreak among poultry and other animals. A highly contagious strain of avian influenza A (H5N1) has been confirmed in dairy cows in nine U.S.

states and two people. An Australian child was also recently infected with bird flu, the country reported on Tuesday. is a disease caused by infection with avian influenza A viruses, which occur naturally among wild aquatic birds and circulate among poultry, TODAY.

com previously reported. Occasionally, bird flu viruses spread to mammals, and rarely, to humans. The highly pathogenic H5N1 strain causing the U.

S. outbreak is severe and often fatal in birds, but appears to be mild in cows. No known human-to-human spread has occurred with the current H5N1 strains, .

The risk to the general public is low, but the outbreak has sounded the alarm among health officials in the U.S. and abroad, who are monitoring bird flu viruses closely.

Michigan dairy worker tests positive for bird flu On Wednesday, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed a second human case of H5N1 in a farmworker on a dairy farm in Michigan.

Cows on the farm had been infected, and the individual tested positive after an eye swab was sent to the CDC. The nasal swab turned up negative, indicating the patient had an eye infection, as only eye symptoms were reported. "Based on the information available, this infection does not change CDC’s cur.