Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency Wednesday after the H5N1 avian influenza virus moved from the Central Valley to dairy herds in Southern California, while federal officials announced the first severe case in the U.S. in a hospitalized patient in Louisiana. confirmed. This is a worrying situation as the virus spreads. It continues to spread throughout the country by migratory birds.
The statement said Newsom’s declaration will allow for a more streamlined approach to fighting the virus among state and local agencies, and will “improve staffing, contracting and other regulations to support California’s evolving response. It provides “flexibility regarding
“Building on California’s testing and surveillance system, the largest in the nation, we are committed to further protecting public health, supporting the agricultural industry, and ensuring Californians have access to accurate, up-to-date information.” Newsom said in the article. statement. “While the risk to the general public remains low, we will continue to take all necessary steps to prevent the spread of this virus.”
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, 645 dairy herds in California have been reported to be infected with the H5N1 virus since August. Nationwide, that number is 865 and dates back to March, when the virus was first detected in a cluster in Texas.
California has also seen a number of confirmed cases of infection in pet cats, three of which were announced Wednesday.
According to the CDC, 61 people have contracted the virus since March, the majority of whom work on dairy farms or commercial poultry farms. Most had mild illnesses such as conjunctivitis, conjunctivitis, and upper respiratory tract infections.
In California, 34 people have been infected with H5N1, and all but one contracted the virus from infected dairy products. The outliers were children in Alameda County. The source of the infection has not been identified. There was also a case in which a child in Marin County was suspected of drinking raw milk known to be infected with the virus. The CDC could not confirm the child’s illness.
The Louisiana case has public health officials concerned because of its severity. Federal officials did not provide details about the patient’s symptoms and deferred all inquiries to the Louisiana Department of Public Health.
Emails and phone calls to that agency went unanswered.
According to CDC officials, the patient reportedly had close contact with sick or dead birds from a backyard flock on the patient’s property. The virus, labeled D1.1 by researchers, is a type of H5N1 avian influenza that is circulating among wild birds.
The strain circulating in dairy cows is known as B3.13.
The D1.1 version was detected in a Canadian teenager who was hospitalized with a serious illness in November. The patient’s source of infection remains unknown.
Demetre Daskalakis, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said Louisiana health officials and the CDC are investigating the patient’s contacts and conducting further genetic analysis of the patient’s virus to determine if any. They are currently trying to determine whether such changes have occurred.
“These additional laboratory studies may indicate changes that indicate increased infectivity to humans, increased transmissibility from person to person, or that currently available diagnostics, antiviral treatments, or treatments are effective. “Vaccine candidate viruses may be less effective,” Daskalakis said at a press conference Wednesday morning.
He said previous analyzes have not shown any changes in the virus that would make it “more adapted to infection and spread among humans.”
Analysis of the Canadian teen’s virus showed mutations that make that version of H5N1 more likely to infect people. However, it is unclear whether these changes occurred before infection, in the wild, or during the infection process in children.
None of the child’s family members or contacts were infected, but this reached a dead end when changes occurred in the teen during infection and the virus could therefore no longer spread beyond the child. It suggests that.
These cases are similar to those historically recorded in Asia and the Middle East, where the H5N1 virus has a mortality rate of about 50%. Since the virus was first identified in 1997, 948 cases and 464 deaths have been reported worldwide.
Cases related to the B3.13 strain, which is circulating at dairy farms in the country, have so far caused only mild symptoms.
Still, research shows that changes in at least one virus isolate taken from a Texas dairy worker have acquired mutations that allow for airborne transmission between mammals and are 100% lethal in laboratory ferrets. It has been shown that this was the case.
However, as was the case with the Canadian teenager, this version is believed to be unique to this dairy worker and did not spread elsewhere.
Other studies have shown that only one mutation is required for the B3.13 version to be passed efficiently between people.
Richard Webby, director of the World Health Organization’s Collaborating Center for Animal and Avian Influenza Ecology, said the D1.1 version of the virus was “a bit worrying”. “Not necessarily because we know they evolve differently, but because there is a different combination of H5 and N1 than what the researchers experimented with with the B3.13 version, which could theoretically lead to a different set of mutations.” It may help support you.”
Daskalakis said the CDC still believes the risk to the general population is low and that the CDC is testing influenza in clinical and public health laboratories “to accelerate the identification of such cases through routine influenza surveillance.” He said he is working to speed up testing for avian influenza.
“California has already established the nation’s largest testing and surveillance system to respond to the outbreak,” Newsom’s office said.
