{"id":812,"date":"2024-04-22T11:39:27","date_gmt":"2024-04-22T11:39:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/retirednurseblog.com\/index.php\/2024\/04\/22\/who-chief-scientist-calls-for-increased-monitoring-and-preparation-for-highly-pathogenic-bird-flu\/"},"modified":"2024-04-22T11:39:27","modified_gmt":"2024-04-22T11:39:27","slug":"who-chief-scientist-calls-for-increased-monitoring-and-preparation-for-highly-pathogenic-bird-flu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/retirednurseblog.com\/index.php\/2024\/04\/22\/who-chief-scientist-calls-for-increased-monitoring-and-preparation-for-highly-pathogenic-bird-flu\/","title":{"rendered":"WHO chief scientist calls for increased monitoring\u00a0and preparation\u00a0for\u00a0highly pathogenic bird flu"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The bird flu spreading through cattle in the United States is an \u201cenormous concern\u201d the chief scientist of the World Health Organization said Thursday as he called for more tracking and preparation for the virus. <\/p>\n

So far, there is no evidence that the highly pathogenic H5N1 flu virus can spread from person to person.\u00a0This flu strain was first detected in birds in 1996 and has primarily been a threat\u00a0to\u00a0farmed and wild fowl, but in the past two years, an increasing number of mammals have tested positive with the virus, indicating that the virus is looking for new hosts and moving closer to people. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe great concern, of course, is that in doing so and infecting ducks and chickens \u2014 but now increasingly mammals \u2014 that that virus now evolves and develops the ability to infect humans. And then critically, the ability to go from human-to-human transmission,\u201d Dr. Jeremy Farrar, a British medical researcher and chief scientist at WHO since 2023, told reporters on Thursday in Geneva. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to watch, more than watch, we have to make sure that if H5N1 did come across to humans with human-to-human transmission that we were in a position to immediately respond with access equitably to vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics.\u201d <\/p>\n

Farrar\u2019s comments came in a response to a question during a news conference about\u00a0WHO\u2019s new definition for airborne pathogens. <\/p>\n

Though H5N1 doesn\u2019t spread from person to person, humans can catch it when they\u2019re exposed to infected animals. In the US, one person in Texas has tested positive for H5N1 this year.\u00a0That person was working with cows when they tested positive, and it is believed they caught it from an infected cow. <\/p>\n

They are only the second documented case of human H5N1 in the United States. The first was in a poultry worker in Colorado in 2022. <\/p>\n

Though it doesn\u2019t spread easily to humans, researchers are worried about it because of how deadly these infections can be. Since 2003, 889 human cases and 463 deaths have been reported from 23 countries, giving this virus a case fatality rate of 52%,\u00a0according to the WHO. <\/p>\n

Webby, who has been studying H5N1 for 20 years, said even though this virus has never figured out how to efficiently make people sick, \u201cwhat\u2019s happening now there are lots more small mammals being infected with this virus and we\u2019ve ever seen in the past 20, close to 25 years of monitoring, so that is absolutely concerning,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Webby said H5N1 is more active now than it ever has been, but it still hasn\u2019t developed key mutations that scientists are worried about that could help it infect people. <\/p>\n

\u201cBecause we haven\u2019t seen those changes does suggest to me that this virus has got quite a hurdle to overcome to become a real sort of human pathogen,\u201d Webby said. <\/p>\n

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