United States: Bird flu cases have increased and are now at 31 in the United States according to federal health officials on Thursday.
Washington health officials said four more cases of bird flu were identified as the virus was becoming presumptive positive over the weekend. Since then two of the four cases are confirmed said Dr. Nirav Shah the principal deputy director of the CDC.
All of the confirmed and suspected cases reported working with infected poultry on a commercial egg farm. All were slightly symptomatic and were treated with antiviral drugs
As reported by ABC News, “These numbers of confirmed and presumptive cases will certainly shift as more cases are potentially identified in Washington state and then confirmed at the CDC,” she said during a press conference on Thursday.
Furthermore, the number of cases in California increased to 15 which to date is the highest in any one state.
In addition, the CDC has said there is no confirmation that human-to-human transmission is possible and has presented the finding of investigation that took place after a case of bird flue in Missouri that was discovered from a normal influenza testing The findings of this study show that human to human transmission of the virus is impossible. Police officers determined that at least one of the members of the household had similar symptoms.
They also surveyed the hospital where the bird flu patient sought admission, and established that 112 health care workers had had contact with this patient and among them, 6 had complained of respiratory illness. Serological test used in identifying antibodies in blood supported the results that the workers were not positive to bird flu.
Preliminary assessments by health officials indicate that the Missouri index patient and the household contact were most likely infected with the same source, however, additional sample testing showed that the case of the household contact does not fit the description of a confirmed case.
Nevertheless, the CDC insisted that the threat in regard to the general population remains rather negligible; there is no evidence for the virus to become any more effective in infecting individuals.
Additionally, the CDC confirmed that laboratory company Quest Diagnostics will have a bird flu test soon available with the prescription from a provider for the clinical purposes and being prescribed the test would require being at the risk for bird flu and experiencing symptoms of the virus.