US bird flu outbreak map shows alarming spread of virus as pandemic ‘inevitable’

Bird flu is currently making its way across the US with over 1,000 outbreaks reported so far, but most Americans have nothing to worry about – at least not for now.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has stated that the risk to the general public is “low” but it is “watching the situation carefully and working with states to monitor people with animal exposures.”

Since 2022, there have been four reported human cases, the most recent three all this year and following exposure to infected dairy cows. The risk is mitigated by the fact that it doesn’t spread easily among humans.

However, public health officials are concerned that this could change. Just recently, former CDC director Dr Robert Redfield told NewsNation: “I really do think it’s very likely that we will, at some time, it’s not a question of if, it’s more of a question of when we will have a bird flu pandemic.”

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In an article in the New York Times, Dr Jennifer B Nuzzo, an epidemiologist and director of the Pandemic Center at the Brown University School of Public Health, warned that the virus “could mutate to gain the ability to infect people more easily.” This would “likely cause a new pandemic.”

With the disease proving fatal in around half of the nearly 900 people known to have contracted the H5N1 strain of the virus worldwide since 2003, bird flu is “typically more dangerous than the viruses that cause seasonal flu and COVID-19.”

Meanwhile, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that H5N1 outbreaks have surfaced in 525 counties across 48 states, affecting nearly 97 million birds since January 2022. This marked the first detection of H5 viruses in the US since 2016.

The influenza has also spread to 92 dairy cow herds in a dozen US states. Commonly known as bird flu, avian influenza is an intensely contagious viral disease impacting many species of birds, affecting their respiratory, digestive, and occasionally nervous systems.

While there are numerous strains of the virus, most do not infect humans. The discovery of the H5N1 strain in US poultry and dairy herds has provoked concern because, although rare, it can be transmitted to humans.

Globally, the World Health Organisation (WHO) reveals 889 cases and 463 deaths caused by the H5N1 virus since 2003. Concerns have recently also arisen over the H5N2 strain of bird flu, following the death of a 59 year old Mexican man – the first recorded human death from this strain, confirmed by WHO.

Reacting to the current H5N1 outbreak in the US, WHO stated: “Since the virus has not acquired mutations that facilitate transmission among humans and based on available information, WHO assesses the public health risk to the general population posed by this virus to be low and for occupationally exposed persons the risk of infection is considered low-to-moderate.”

“Due to the constantly evolving nature of influenza viruses, WHO continues to stress the importance of global surveillance to detect and monitor virological, epidemiological and clinical changes associated with emerging or circulating influenza viruses that may affect human (or animal) health and timely virus sharing for risk assessment.”