{"id":110607,"date":"2024-10-05T08:15:58","date_gmt":"2024-10-05T01:15:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/?p=110607"},"modified":"2024-10-05T08:15:58","modified_gmt":"2024-10-05T01:15:58","slug":"is-bird-flu-spreading-in-people-without-blood-test-results-officials-cant-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/?p=110607","title":{"rendered":"Is bird flu spreading in people? Without blood test results, officials can&#8217;t say"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-3711241968723425\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"fluid\"\r\n     data-ad-layout-key=\"-fb+5w+4e-db+86\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-3711241968723425\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"7910942971\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"\">A total of seven people who were in close contact with a<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/health\/health-news\/person-infected-bird-flu-missouri-no-contact-animals-know-rcna170010\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> bird flu patient<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/health\/health-news\/person-infected-bird-flu-missouri-no-contact-animals-know-rcna170010\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> in Missouri<\/a> developed symptoms, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday, but it remains unclear whether these represent cases of human-to-human spread of the virus.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Antibody blood test results, which will come back later this month, officials said, are needed to answer that question. Since most of the seven people <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/health\/health-news\/cdc-says-second-health-care-worker-tied-missouri-bird-flu-case-symptom-rcna171262\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">weren\u2019t tested for bird flu<\/a>, it\u2019s not yet known whether any of them were infected with the virus or another pathogen.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">The Missouri patient, who didn\u2019t have known contact with poultry or dairy cows, was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/media\/releases\/2024\/s0906-birdflu-case-missouri.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">hospitalized in August<\/a> with underlying medical conditions.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">On a call with reporters Friday, Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, director of the CDC\u2019s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said officials were able to retroactively track the patient\u2019s movements during their time in the hospital in August and identify health care workers who were exposed and potentially at risk.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">After the patient was hospitalized, Daskalaskis said, doctors tested the individual for influenza, a result that came back positive, and gave the patient Tamiflu. After the positive flu result, health care workers started using more personal protective gear around the patient.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Separately, as part of routine flu surveillance and not because doctors suspected anything unusual in the patient\u2019s case, the hospital sent the patient\u2019s flu sample to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/health\/health-news\/bird-flu-virus-may-found-handful-wastewater-sites-cdc-says-rcna152148\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">be tested for H5<\/a>, which is the bird flu virus strain.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">The positive H5 result triggered the investigation. Officials found that during the patient\u2019s time at the hospital, 112 health care workers had interacted with them. Six developed respiratory symptoms. The other close contact who <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/health\/health-news\/cdc-says-no-clear-source-bird-flu-infection-missouri-patient-rcna170871\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">developed symptoms was a household contact<\/a>. All have recovered.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Among the 112 workers, 18 were considered to have had higher risk interactions because they occurred before the patient tested positive for flu and therefore before \u201cdroplet precautions\u201d were taken to protect workers from infection, Daskalaskis said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">The remaining 94 interacted with the patient after the precautions were in place. Normally, he said, these health care workers wouldn\u2019t be considered \u201cexposed,\u201d but the agency pursued them anyway \u201cout of an abundance of caution.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, said that even if the health care workers interacted with the patient after precautions were in place, it doesn\u2019t rule out the possibility that they were infected with bird flu. The virus can be transmitted through aerosols, particles smaller than droplets that can suspend the air for long periods of time.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Osterholm said he would be \u201cvery surprised,\u201d however, if any of the sick health care workers had bird flu, given that officials had a very hard time getting viable virus from the patient. <\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Still, he said, the lack of information isn\u2019t helping matters.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cUnfortunately, just to delay getting the confirmatory information has led people to speculate that this is a cluster of H5N1,\u201d he said. \u201cIt builds suspense that somehow there\u2019s something we don\u2019t know.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">One of the sick health workers tested negative for influenza, Daskalakis said, suggesting that their symptoms weren\u2019t related to bird flu. Blood tests, however, will need to help rule out the remaining five health workers as their symptoms were only discovered after the investigation began.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Caitlin Rivers, an epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security in Baltimore, said that while the investigation\u2019s findings shed more light on the patient\u2019s interactions with health care workers, there are still unanswered questions about those who became ill.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">For example, it remains unclear whether the health care workers became sick on the same day they met the patient, the following day or several days later.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">After exposure to the bird flu virus, people typically develop symptoms within 3 to 5 days. Depending on the timing of symptom onset, it\u2019s possible that the workers could have been sick with a different virus, such as Covid.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cTiming would be helpful,\u201d Rivers said. \u201cIf the dates were very commensurate with transmission then that would raise concern.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Daskalakis shared a similar sentiment on Friday\u2019s call.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cWe are in the middle of respiratory season,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">All of that additional information on the health workers will be secondary to the blood tests results, Rivers said, and whether they show signs of a previous infection.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cIt would be notable, because the Missouri bird patient didn\u2019t have any known exposures, and so already there is a mysterious circumstance that could be concerning,\u201d she said. \u201cIf human to human transmission were confirmed that would be the first instance in the United States. H5 has been circulating for a long time in wild animals.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">The H5N1 bird flu outbreak in dairy cows has infected 254 herds across 14 states as of Thursday, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/bird-flu\/situation-summary\/mammals.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">according to the CDC.<\/a> <\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Since March, there have been a total of 16 cases in humans, including <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/media\/releases\/2024\/s1003-birdflu-case-california.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">two cases reported<\/a> in California dairy workers on Thursday. Those two cases are not related, the CDC said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"endmark\">With the exception of the Missouri patient, all human cases have been in dairy or poultry workers. All have recovered.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-3711241968723425\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"fluid\"\r\n     data-ad-layout-key=\"-fb+5w+4e-db+86\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-3711241968723425\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"7910942971\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><div data-type=\"_mgwidget\" data-widget-id=\"1660802\">\r\n<\/div>\r\n<script>(function(w,q){w[q]=w[q]||[];w[q].push([\"_mgc.load\"])})(window,\"_mgq\");\r\n<\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/health\/health-news\/bird-flu-spreading-people-blood-test-results-officials-cant-say-rcna173309\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A total of seven people who were in close contact with a bird flu patient in Missouri developed symptoms, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday, but it &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/?p=110607\" class=\"more-link\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-110607","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110607","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=110607"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110607\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=110607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=110607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=110607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}