United States – Healthcare departments at the federal and state levels have confirmed that there is a third human case of bird flu in California, and two other potentials have been detected.
The case was reported by a dairy farm worker in the Central Valley who was in contact with contaminated cows, according to the CDC on Thursday. To date, all three cases in California occurred in women from three different farms, and the patients don’t seem to have interacted, as reported by The Hills.
Minimal Symptoms and No Hospitalizations
In all three cases, complaints were insignificant, and the eyes were red and had traces of blood — one of the symptoms of conjunctivitis. Hospitilization did not form part of any of the three case scenarios.
CFDH said it has also pinpointed two new potential human cases in California’s Central Valley, the state’s farming region.
The presence of the bird flu virus in people who had contact with infected animals was expected, the CDC added and does not alter the agency’s threat assessment for the general population, which remains minimal.
Spread of Bird Flu Among California Herds
In August, cases of H5N1 bird flu among California dairy herds began to show signs of the disease. Since then, bird flu has spread across more than 90 herds in the state, which have been reported by the Department of Agriculture.
Including this most recent case, 17 human cases of the virus have been reported in the country this year. Earlier ones were reported in workers in Texas, Colorado and Michigan only.
CDC Confirms No Genetic Changes in Viruses
Also, on Thursday, CDC officials said the viruses from the first two human cases detected last week were sequenced, and the information was released to the public, as reported by The Hills.
What the agency found is that there were no genetic changes, which are quality indicators of enhanced ability to infect or spread from one person to another, or indicators of decreased sensitivity to antiviral drugs.