The sixty-year-old is hospitalized in critical condition. A first serious case of human contamination with the H5N1 virus has been detected in the United States, the American authorities announced on Wednesday, December 18. While the virus has already caused, according to the World Organization for Animal Health, the death of 300 million birds around the world since October 2021, franceinfo takes stock of the health situation across the Atlantic.
The patient, aged 65, is hospitalized in Louisiana
The patient is hospitalized in Louisiana. Aged over 65 and suffering from other pathologies, the man is in “a critical condition” et “suffers from a severe respiratory illness”, state health authorities detailed to AFP.
This is the 61st human case of avian flu detected since April in the United States, including 34 in California alone, the American Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC) said in a press release. The other infected people had mild symptoms.
Serious cases of avian flu in humans have already been detected in other countries, recall American health authorities. In Canada, a teenager was hospitalized in November in British Columbia). The young boy presented with acute respiratory distress syndrome, said the chief doctor, reports -.
The man was in contact with sick birds
According to the CDC, the Louisiana patient had contact with sick and dead birds in a barnyard. “These are not commercial poultry and there has been no exposure to dairy cows or their products.”specified Demetre Daskalakis, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases of the CDC, quoted by the American channel CNN.
Genomic sequencing showed that the version of the H5N1 virus that infected him was the same type that infected people in Washington state and Canada, as well as wild birds and poultry in the United States. However, it is different from that detected in cattle, other poultry and for mild human cases.
The Ministry of Health said it was conducting an investigation and monitoring the patient’s contacts to identify any possible exposure, while offering tests and antiviral medications, adds the NBC News channel.
An ongoing epizootic in the United States
For several months, the United States has been facing an epizootic (the equivalent of an epidemic in animals) of avian flu. Several elements suggest that this disease “is knocking on our door and could trigger a new pandemic”, warned Meg Schaeffer, epidemiologist at the American SAS institute, on December 11, interviewed by AFP.
The avian flu virus is circulating in the country among poultry farms and has been spreading in an unprecedented way since March among cow herds. Faced with this development, California has taken emergency measures so that government agencies have free rein to “to respond quickly”, Governor Gavin Newsom announced on Wednesday.
American health authorities, however, assured Wednesday that their assessment of the risk presented by avian flu for public health was not changing and remained “weak”. “No spread of bird flu [de sous-type] H5 from person to person was not detected”, they assured.
Cases of contamination without contact with animals
LThe recent detection of cases in people with no known contact with an infected animal, however, worries scientists. At least three people have been infected in recent months by the H5N1 virus in the United States without the origin being determined. Faced with the growing number of affected mammals, experts fear that high circulation could facilitate a mutation of the virus which would allow it to pass from one human to another.
While traces of the virus have been detected in raw or unpasteurized milk, the US Department of Agriculture unveiled a new plan on Wednesday to strengthen surveillance in this area. In California, Raw Farm’s unpasteurized milk and cream were recalled and distribution of the product was suspended. suspended at the beginning of Decemberas CNN explains.
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