Health officials confirmed Sunday that four poultry workers in Colorado have been diagnosed with bird flu. This brings the total number of cases in the U.S. to nine since the first human case of the current outbreak was detected in 2022, also in a Colorado poultry worker. Eight out of the nine cases were reported this year.
The symptoms experienced by the workers were relatively mild, including reddened and irritated eyes, fever, chills, coughing, sore throat, and runny nose. None of them required hospitalization. Another person with symptoms is currently being tested, with results pending. The workers had direct contact with infected birds while culling poultry at a farm in northeast Colorado, according to state health officials.
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Since 2020, a bird flu virus has been spreading among mammals in various countries. The H5N1 virus was detected in U.S. livestock earlier this year and is now circulating in cattle in several states. Health officials maintain that the risk to the general public is low, as the virus has not been transmitted between people. However, precautions are being taken due to the potential lethality of previous versions of the virus.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have deployed a team to Colorado to assist in the investigation at the state’s request. The earlier cases this year were among dairy farm workers in Michigan, Texas, and Colorado. The virus found in the latest cases is similar to the type detected in previous U.S. cases, but further genetic analysis is ongoing to confirm the exact match.
As of Friday, the H5N1 virus has been confirmed in 152 dairy herds in 12 states, according to the U.S. Agriculture Department. More than 30 states have reported cases of H5N1 or other bird flu strains in commercial poultry flocks.
