Bird flu infections are more prevalent than expected among U.S. dairy workers – Study | U.S. News

Eight (7%) of 115 dairy workers in Michigan and Colorado who worked with H5N1-infected cattle had antibodies to avian influenza, the report found. new research This infection rate is significantly higher than known cases of the highly pathogenic virus, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which means existing efforts are falling short of protecting, diagnosing, and treating those at risk. That means, experts said.

Due to the fall migration of wild birds, the onset of human influenza season, and the effects of the second Trump administration's proposed policy aimed at curbing public health and expanding the deportation of immigrants, who are the backbone of the agricultural workforce, cases of infection have been discovered. may become even more difficult. In the US.

A new study by the CDC and state health departments examined blood samples from people who raised H5-infected cattle in Michigan and Colorado between June and August 2024.

Of the eight people for whom infection with highly pathogenic avian influenza had not been detected so far, four remembered having symptoms, mainly conjunctivitis, and the other four remembered having symptoms. It wasn't.

All eight employees spoke Spanish and reported milking infected cows and cleaning the milk parlor. None were wearing respirators, and less than half were wearing goggles or other eye protection.

Remarkably, even though all had worked with cattle on farms with confirmed infections, only one person said they had ever worked with infected cattle, indicating that workers faced points out barriers to understanding the risks involved.

“This speaks volumes about the importance of more farm training around H5 and how to protect yourself from H5,” Demetre Daskalakis, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, told reporters on Thursday. “I'm doing it,” he said.

Jennifer Nuzzo, director of the Pandemic Center and professor of epidemiology at Brown University School of Public Health, said news of the under-the-radar cases was “not surprising at all.”

“If you test people at work and they test positive and that person has to stay home and could lose their income, people should tell you if they have symptoms. We should expect that there may not be. And everything we know about influenza gives us very high suspicion that asymptomatic infection exists,” Nuzzo said.

The CDC has previously recommended testing only people who develop symptoms after direct contact with animals.

“We are not doing enough to protect people from infection and ensure that those who become infected have access to medicines that may prevent them from becoming seriously ill,” Nuzzo said.

CDC is now taking measures to protect workers, including expanding testing recommendations for farmworkers who have been exposed to the virus but are not showing symptoms, and providing these workers with access to anti-influenza virus medications. It is being strengthened.

“We as public health officials need to cast a wider net to identify, treat, and isolate people who are offered tests,” CDC Principal Deputy Director Nirav Shah said Thursday. Ta. Identifying cases and treating people helps prevent mild infections from becoming severe, reducing the chance of the virus spreading between people.

“The less room we give this virus to infect, the less chance it has of doing harm or making a difference,” Shah said. The agency is also increasing guidance and education on the importance of personal protective equipment.

“I think there's some degree of satisfaction in trying to get this virus under control because we haven't had any serious illness or deaths yet, but I think before we take action to protect farmworkers. I've always said we shouldn't wait for farmworkers to die,'' Nuzzo said. “I don't think you should gamble with people's lives like that.”

She believes existing stocks of H5N1 vaccines should be made available to farmworkers, pending regulatory approval. Vaccines can help prevent serious illness, especially among people who are reluctant to come forward with an illness that could jeopardize their job or even their ability to stay in the country.

“Give it to people who want to protect themselves,” Nuzzo said. “This virus is not going away. It will continue to make its way into more and more U.S. farms, posing an even greater threat to human health.”

Even if the “moral obligation” to protect farm workers doesn't move Americans, she says, perhaps the economic impact of higher prices for milk, eggs and meat will. “Nobody wants food prices to go up any higher than they are now.”

So far this year, 46 people have been officially diagnosed with H5N1, more than half of whom are dairy workers. Nine more people have been identified through blood tests, meaning a total of 55 people will be affected by bird flu in 2024.

As other influenza variants soon begin circulating in the population this fall, the possibility of reassortment, a process in which different influenza variants combine to acquire worse properties, increases.

“By spreading this virus, we can give it a runway to develop the ability to more easily infect people and, importantly, the ability to transmit more easily between people,” Nuzzo said. he said. “If the virus allows that, we will be in a new pandemic.”