A fourth person has contracted bird flu in California, state officials announced Thursday, amid an outbreak in the state’s dairy industry.
Like previous confirmed cases, this individual worked in the state’s agricultural Central Valley and had contact with infected dairy cows, the California Department of Public Health said in a news release. All confirmed cases in California have shown mild symptoms, including red eyes and discharge. No one was hospitalized.
There is no known link between the confirmed cases, suggesting that widespread transmission exists among dairy herds and that infected cows pose a risk to people working in or around the herd. There is.
So far, authorities have identified 17 people across the United States who have contracted bird flu this year. Almost all workers worked with infected dairy products or poultry.
Two other people in California’s Central Valley are suspected of contracting bird flu. Test results that could confirm this are pending from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.
California officials said the risk to the general public remains low, but “people who come into contact with infected animals are at high risk of contracting avian influenza.”
On Thursday morning, CDC officials announced that California’s first two cases were caused by the same virus strain, closely related to the virus detected in infected dairy cows. The virus does not appear to have any genetic changes that would make it more infectious or transmissible to humans or make antiviral drugs used to treat it less effective.
As of Thursday, about 100 dairy farms in central California had reported confirmed cases of avian influenza in cattle, state officials said. State health officials recommend that workers wear personal protective equipment such as N95 masks, goggles, face shields and gloves.
