The News
The US reported its first known human death from H5N1 bird flu on Monday. The patient was hospitalized in Louisiana last month.
A total of 66 people have tested positive for H5N1 in the US, usually with mild symptoms: The disease has been spreading among US dairy cows, although the dead victim apparently contracted the disease directly from birds.
The concern is that the virus mutates to spread between humans and, in a worst-case scenario, starts a new pandemic. But Louisiana authorities found no evidence of person-to-person transmission, and said the risk to the public remained low. Genetic samples collected from the now-deceased patient, however, indicated several changes that may improve the virus’ ability to bind to cells in human airways.
SIGNALS
US government criticized for failure to contain outbreak on farms
The risk to the general public from H5N1 bird flu remains low, a World Health Organization spokesperson told Reuters, echoing earlier comments by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But some experts say that the government’s failure to contain the outbreak on dairy farms — the Department of Agriculture didn’t require lactating cows to be tested before interstate travel until late April, by which time the virus had spread to eight other states — means the situation could potentially spiral, PBS News reported. Farmworkers are reluctant to get tested due to the high cost, and Donald Trump’s vow to deport undocumented immigrants en masse could dissuade them from seeing a doctor about symptoms or complain about unsafe conditions, a public health expert warned.
COVID-19 has left a long shadow over pandemic preparedness
Ninety percent of epidemiological experts surveyed by the Abbott Pandemic Defense Coalition in September said that we are “as well or better prepared” for the next pandemic compared to before COVID-19. Others disagree: COVID left global health systems “really shaky,” a pandemic preparedness expert told The Guardian, as they struggle to cope with the growing list of health crises, compounding a workforce problem: “Many have left. Many are suffering from PTSD. Many died,” the expert said. Despite governments’ promises, there’s still no agreement on the “big elephant in the room” of guaranteeing poorer countries access to treatments and vaccines, a health policy expert noted.