U.S. human case of bird flu detected without known animal exposure

Glacier FarmMedia—The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services said on Friday that a person hospitalized with bird flu was the first human case detected in the United States without any known animal exposure.

The person, who also had underlying medical conditions, was sent to hospital on Aug. 22 and later tested positive with the H5 avian influenza strain. The infection was detected by Missouri’s state standard flu surveillance system. The U.S. Centers For Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said it will study the flu strain more.

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The case, being the first in the U.S. without known animal transmission, as well as the first case requiring hospitalization, has alarmed infectious disease experts. However, it has not been confirmed that the cause of the person’s hospitalization was bird flu. All 15 previous human cases in the U.S. during the current outbreak worked in farms and only showed minor illness.

Researchers from the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston and the Baylor College of Medicine detected H5N1 in the wastewater of 10 cities in the state.

In an article published in the New England Journal of Medicine, the researchers in Texas said they collected 399 wastewater samples from March 4 to July 15, of which 100 tested positive for H5N1. The 100 positive samples came from 22 out of 23 sites and all 10 cities examined. Before March, 1,337 samples tested negative for the virus. Despite the abundance of H5N1, there were no reported hospitalizations due to infection.

The wastewater testing program was established as part of the Texas Epidemic Public Health Institute.

Elsewhere, three wastewater sites in California’s Bay Area detected H5N1 in June.

More than 100 million poultry, as well as more than 10,000 wild birds and 200 dairy herds were affected by bird flu as of Sept. 11, according to the CDC. Outbreaks were detected in poultry in 48 states, as well as in dairy cows in 14 states.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has not yet detected infections in dairy cattle. However, poultry, wild birds and other animals have been infected.

According to the CFIA, there have been 183 confirmed or suspected cases of bird flu in 2024 so far, with poultry cases found in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario, Quebec and Nova Scotia.