Is there a risk of an epidemic or even a pandemic? For several weeks, the United States has been registering cases of avian flu detected in humans in several states of the territory and of various origins. A health situation marked by a new episode: the hospitalization of a patient.
• First serious case detected
A patient was hospitalized in Louisiana due to an infection with the bird flu virus, the first serious case in the United States, US health authorities announced Wednesday.
He is over 65 years old and suffers from other pathologies, he is in “critical condition” and “suffers from a serious respiratory illness,” detailed the Louisiana health authorities. The patient came into contact with sick and dead birds in a pen, the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC) said in a news release.
• 61 cases in the country since spring
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicates that 61 human cases of avian flu have been detected in the United States since April. Genetic sequencing showed that the H5N1 virus that infected this patient from the southern state of Louisiana was the same type as the one that had previously infected people in the American state of Washington and neighboring Canada.
This version of the virus is different from that detected in several dairy cow herds and poultry farms in the United States.
• Health authorities still want to give peace of mind
Other serious cases of avian flu in humans have already been detected in other countries, US authorities recall. This was the case of a teenager hospitalized in November in the Canadian province of British Columbia. In September and November, two people tested positive for bird flu in the United States, with no known contact with an infected animal.
Several elements suggest that “bird flu is knocking on our door and could trigger a new pandemic,” recently stated Meg Schaeffer, an epidemiologist at the American SAS institute.
“No spread of H5 avian flu (subtype) from one person to another has been detected,” the CDC also indicates, adding that this new detected case, although serious, “does not modify” its assessment “of the immediate risk linked to the H5N1 avian influenza virus for public health, which remains low.
Avian influenza A (H5N1) first appeared in 1996, but since 2020 the number of outbreaks in birds has skyrocketed and an increasing number of mammal species have been affected.
Experts are concerned about the growing number of infected mammals, although human cases remain rare. They fear that high circulation could facilitate a mutation of the virus that would allow its transmission from one human being to another.
Source: BFM TV
