Bird Flu Now Spreading To Humans As Health Officials Scramble

The CDC finds itself not only trying to blunt the spread of the H5N1 virus, but also playing catch-up with testing methods that have been largely resisted among America’s farmers. Can new interventions can ward off mass human-to-human transmission of this strain? Via Fortune:

“We will have a bird flu pandemic,” Robert Redfield, former director of the CDC, bluntly predicted in a television interview in June. “It’s not a question of if; it’s more a question of when … Once the virus gains the ability to attach to the human receptor and then go human to human, that’s when you’re going to have the pandemic.”

A CDC study released Thursday did little to alleviate that concern. The report found that a significant percentage of H5N1 infections went undetected in dairy workers who worked on farms with cows that were confirmed positive for the virus last summer. Among 115 farm workers who underwent blood tests in Michigan and Colorado, eight had evidence of recent infection in the form of antibodies—but only half of them could recall having symptoms. “All eight had either been milking cows or cleaning the milking mechanisms, officials said.

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