Why California declared a state of emergency over bird flu | West Coast

How did bird flu spread in the United States?

The virus, also known as type A H5N, has been spreading for years in wild birds, poultry and many mammal species. It was first detected in US dairy cattle in March. Since then, bird flu has been confirmed in at least 866 flocks in 16 states.

According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), more than 60 people in eight states have been infected, with mostly mild illnesses. Almost all of these were farm workers who were directly exposed to infected dairy cattle or poultry.

A person in Louisiana has been hospitalized with the country’s first known serious illness caused by the virus, health officials said this week. This patient was infected by a backyard herd.

In addition to direct contact with farm animals and wild birds, the H5N1 virus can also be spread through raw milk. According to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), pasteurized milk is safe to drink because the heat treatment kills the virus.

There are no reports of human-to-human transmission.

How did it spread in California?

California is the top milk-producing state in the United States, and three-quarters of the country’s infected herds, about 650 of them, are in the state.

The state has been searching for bird flu in large milk tanks during processing, and the virus was discovered at four Southern California dairy farms earlier this month after being found in the state’s Central Valley since August.

The discovery on Southern California farms made clear the state needed “a shift from regional containment to statewide surveillance and response,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom said in his emergency declaration.

What does the declaration of emergency do?

The declaration allows the state to better equip state personnel and supplies to respond to the outbreak, Newsom said.

“This proclamation is a targeted measure to ensure government agencies have the resources and flexibility they need to respond quickly to this outbreak,” he said in a statement.

How big is the risk to the public?

CDC officials reiterated this week that the virus currently poses a low risk to the general public.

But the case of severe illness in the United States this week shows that the virus could pose a danger to some people, while previous cases mostly caused eye redness.

The Louisiana patient, who is over 65 years old and had underlying health issues, is in critical condition. Few details have been released, but officials said the person developed severe respiratory symptoms after being exposed to a flock of sick birds in the backyard. That makes it the first confirmed U.S. infection linked to backyard birds, the CDC said. Tests showed that the strain that caused the disease was found in wild birds but not in cattle.

Last month, health authorities in Canada reported that a teenager in British Columbia was hospitalized with a severe case of avian flu, also with the strain of the virus also found in wild birds.

It’s possible that the more people become infected, the more severe illness will occur, said Angela Rasmussen, a virus expert at the University of Saskatchewan in Canada.

“I expect that any H5N1 virus has the potential to be very serious and deadly,” Rasmussen said.

What other reasons are there for experts to be concerned?

Although there are no reports of human-to-human transmission and no evidence that the virus has changed to spread more easily among people, experts warn that flu viruses are constantly mutating and small genetic changes could alter the outlook.

Flu experts say it’s too early to tell what course the outbreak might take. “The completely unsatisfactory answer will be: I don’t think we know yet,” said Richard Webby, an influenza expert at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.