Health experts urge the United States to control bird flu

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International health experts have warned that the United States must strengthen measures to control the country’s bird flu outbreak and reduce the growing risk that the virus will evolve to spread more easily between people.

Scientists called for increased vaccination of farm workers and more efforts to stop the spread of the H5N1 virus among farm animals It continues to infect Livestock and chickens across the country.

The pandemic represents an early test for President Donald Trump’s administration, which is what happened Reducing obligations For global efforts to control and prevent diseases.

Professor James Wood, an infectious disease expert at the University of Cambridge in the UK, said: “It is arguably highly irresponsible for US authorities to allow such a sustained high level of virus transmission in dairy cows as this poses a significant threat to global human health.”

He added that restrictions such as tightening livestock movement “would significantly reduce human exposure to the virus, which is expected in every other country.”

Experts have been watching with increasing concern the spread of the H5N1 virus in the United States for more than nine months. An outbreak has resulted 67 confirmed human casesMost of them are in people who work with livestock and chickens, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

the First death It was reported this month, although no cases of human-to-human transmission have been documented to date.

Virologists fear that genetic material from the H5N1 virus could recombine with another animal or human influenza, creating a new virus that would likely be transmitted between humans. This scenario becomes more likely as the H5N1 virus spreads in the United States during the winter influenza season.

There were an estimated 12 million to 22 million Human influenza cases Between October 1 and January 11, according to the CDC. On January 16, it urged hospitals to analyze whether it was within 24 hours Flu patients have already been infected with bird fluEspecially if the patient is in intensive care. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in November it had provided that Human influenza vaccines For farmworkers in 12 states.

It considered the risk of the H5N1 virus to the public to be low, but added that it was “monitoring this dynamic situation closely.”

The World Organization for Animal Health, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the World Health Organization said that governments must intensify several measures to combat the spread of bird flu. These include enhancing virus testing and sequencing, data sharing, improving farm biosecurity and protecting people who have been exposed to infected animals, said Maria Van Kerkhove, a senior WHO official.

“More efforts can and should be made to reduce the spread of avian influenza among animals, between different animal species and among humans,” said Van Kerkhove, Acting Director of Pandemic Preparedness.

Van Kerkhove added that the WHO has also encouraged pharmaceutical companies to develop more animal vaccines that can be widely used to reduce the spread of bird flu.

The three leading companies in the industry Bird flu vaccines For humans – CSL Seqirus, Sanofi and GSK – are well positioned to respond if the outbreak turns into a pandemic. In October, the trio signed a $72 million agreement with the US government that includes commitments to prepare to distribute doses quickly and maintain supply levels.

The US government on January 17 awarded $590 million to Moderna, which is developing a flu vaccine using similar RNA-based technology as the Covid vaccine.

Several European governments have requested the Seqirus vaccine, but Finland is the only country that has confirmed it is using the vaccines to vaccinate farm workers. The northern European country is also conducting its own independent study into the vaccine’s safety and effectiveness, the vaccine manufacturer said.

The US response to bird flu was further complicated by a “short pause” imposed on “mass communications and public appearances not directly related to emergencies or critical to the maintenance of health” by the Department of Health and Human Services and other agencies.

The Department of Health said the Trump administration began the pause period “to prepare a process for review and prioritization.”

Trump and his allies criticize basic aspects of disease control internationally, while Robert F. Kennedy Jr., his nominee for Secretary of Health and Human Services, is a long-time vaccine skeptic.

One of Trump’s first actions after his inauguration was to launch a year-long process to withdraw the United States from the World Health Organization. He took the same action in 2020 during his previous term, but President Joe Biden reversed his decision to take office in January 2021.

Data visualization by Bob Haslett