Final Friday, US authorities mentioned a baby in California had develop into the primary within the US to check optimistic for hen flu an infection. Well being officers provided checks and preventive therapy to uncovered contacts on the kid’s day-care centre.
The kid had gentle signs and was mentioned to be recovering at house following therapy with flu antivirals.
“Together with this most up-to-date case, 55 human instances of H5 hen flu have now been reported within the US throughout 2024, with 29 in California,” the US Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention mentioned.
Van Kerkhove mentioned all however two of these had identified publicity to contaminated animals.
“We have now not seen proof of human-to-human an infection. However once more, for every of those human-detected instances, we need to see a really thorough investigation happening,” she mentioned.
“We’d like a lot stronger efforts by way of lowering the chance of an infection between animals to new species and to people,” she added, notably by testing and correct protecting gear.
Van Kerkhove, who was the WHO’s COVID-19 technical lead, harassed the significance of getting ready “for when or if we will probably be in a scenario the place we’re in a flu pandemic”.
“We’re not in that scenario but, however we do want extra vigilance.”