{"id":124762,"date":"2024-11-11T23:35:54","date_gmt":"2024-11-11T16:35:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/?p=124762"},"modified":"2024-11-11T23:35:54","modified_gmt":"2024-11-11T16:35:54","slug":"bird-flu-infections-more-widespread-among-us-dairy-workers-than-thought-study-us-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/?p=124762","title":{"rendered":"Bird flu infections more widespread among US dairy workers than thought \u2013 study | US news"},"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=\"dcr-1eu361v\">Eight out of 115 dairy workers, or 7%, who worked with H5N1-infected cows in Michigan and Colorado have antibodies to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/bird-flu\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">bird flu<\/a>, according to a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/mmwr\/volumes\/73\/wr\/mm7344a3.htm\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">new study<\/a> from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) \u2013 a rate significantly higher than known cases of the highly pathogenic virus, which means existing efforts are not protecting, diagnosing and treating people at risk, experts said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1eu361v\">It could become even harder to detect cases amid the fall migration of wild birds, the upcoming human flu season, and repercussions of the second Trump administration\u2019s proposed policies to curtail public health and expand deportation of immigrants, who serve as the backbone of the agricultural workforce in the US.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1eu361v\">The new survey from the CDC and state health departments looked at blood samples from people who worked with H5-infected cows in Michigan and Colorado between June to August 2024.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1eu361v\">Out of the eight people who had previously undetected cases of the highly pathogenic bird flu, four remembered having symptoms, mostly conjunctivitis, and the other four did not recall having symptoms.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1eu361v\">All eight workers were Spanish speakers who reported milking infected cows or cleaning milk parlors. None of them wore respirators, and less than half wore eye protection like goggles.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1eu361v\">Notably, only one person said they had worked with infected cows, even though all of them were working with cows on farms with known infections \u2013 pointing to barriers in workers understanding the risks they face.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1eu361v\">\u201cIt really speaks to the importance of more on-farm training around H5 as well as ways to protect from H5,\u201d Demetre Daskalakis, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, told reporters on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1eu361v\">The news of cases that flew beneath the radar is \u201ccompletely unsurprising\u201d, said Jennifer Nuzzo, the director of the Pandemic Center and a professor of epidemiology at Brown University School of Public Health.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1eu361v\">\u201cWhen you test people at their place of work, and if the consequence of testing positive is that they have to stay home and possibly not earn an income, you should expect that people might not tell you if they\u2019ve had symptoms. Also, everything we know about flu gives us the very strong suspicion that there would be asymptomatic infections,\u201d Nuzzo said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1eu361v\">Until now, the CDC has recommended testing only people who report symptoms after having direct animal contact.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1eu361v\">\u201cWe are not doing enough to make sure that we are protecting people from getting infected and certainly making sure that people who are infected get access to medicines that could potentially keep them from getting severely ill,\u201d Nuzzo said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1eu361v\">The CDC is now bolstering measures to protect workers, including expanding recommendations to test farm workers who are exposed to the virus but don\u2019t develop symptoms, and offering those workers access to flu antivirals.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1eu361v\">\u201cWe in public health need to cast a wider net in terms of who is offered a test so that we can identify, treat and isolate those individuals,\u201d Nirav Shah, the CDC\u2019s principal deputy director, said on Thursday. Identifying cases and treating people helps to keep a mild infection from turning into a severe one \u2013 and it reduces the chances that the virus will spread onward among people.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1eu361v\">\u201cThe less room we give this virus to run, the fewer chances it has to cause harm or to change,\u201d Shah said. The agency is also improving guidance and education on the importance of personal protective equipment.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1eu361v\">\u201cBecause we haven\u2019t seen severe illness and deaths yet, I think there\u2019s been some complacency around trying to control this virus, but I\u2019ve always said we shouldn\u2019t wait for farm workers to die before we take action to protect them,\u201d Nuzzo said. \u201cI just don\u2019t think you should gamble with people\u2019s lives like that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1eu361v\">She believes existing stockpiles of H5N1 vaccines should be offered to farm workers, pending their authorization from regulatory agencies. Vaccines can help prevent severe illness, particularly among a population that may be hesitant to come forward with an illness that could jeopardize their job or even their ability to stay in the country.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1eu361v\">\u201cJust offer it for people who may want to protect themselves,\u201d Nuzzo said. \u201cThis virus is not going away. This virus is going to represent an even greater threat to human health as it continues to find its way into more and more US farms.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1eu361v\">If the \u201cmoral imperative\u201d to protect agricultural workers doesn\u2019t move Americans, perhaps the economic effects of higher costs of milk, eggs and meat will, she said. \u201cNobody wants the cost of groceries to be any higher than they already are.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1eu361v\">So far, there have been 46 official cases of H5N1 diagnosed in people this year, more than half of which have been among dairy farmworkers. Another nine people have now been identified by blood testing, for a total of 55 people affected by bird flu in 2024.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1eu361v\">Other influenza variants will soon begin circulation in people this fall, which raises the possibility of reassortment \u2013 a process where different flu variants combine and potentially gain worse attributes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1eu361v\">\u201cBy allowing this virus to circulate, we could give it a runway to develop the ability to more easily infect people, and crucially, to be able to spread easily between people,\u201d Nuzzo said. \u201cIf the virus can do that, we will be in a new pandemic.\u201d<\/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.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2024\/nov\/11\/us-bird-flu-dairy-workers\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Eight out of 115 dairy workers, or 7%, who worked with H5N1-infected cows in Michigan and Colorado have antibodies to bird flu, according to a new study from the US &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/?p=124762\" 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-124762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124762","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=124762"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124762\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=124762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=124762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=124762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}