Waukeshahealthinsurance.com-
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The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services announced Thursday that a third person in the U.S. has contracted H5 bird flu from an outbreak in dairy cattle. This is the second human case reported in the state.
This time, the Ministry of Health announced that in addition to the eye symptoms seen in other recent human infections with this virus, the man also had the farmer's cough and other respiratory symptoms typical of human influenza infections.
Experts familiar with the matter said that the increase in respiratory symptoms does not indicate that the virus is more dangerous or that it is easily transmitted from person to person. Instead, the person develops lung symptoms because of the way they became infected, perhaps by breathing in contaminated air in a milking parlor instead of rubbing their eyes with contaminated hands.
“In the first case in Michigan, eye symptoms occurred after direct contact with contaminated milk in the eye. In this case, respiratory symptoms occurred after direct exposure to an infected cow,” Dr. Natasha Baghdasarian, Michigan's chief medical officer, said in a news release. “Both individuals were not wearing full personal protective equipment (PPE). This tells us that direct exposure to infected animals poses a risk to humans, and PPE is an important tool to prevent spread among dairy and poultry workers. We have not seen ongoing human-to-human transmission, and the health risk to the general population is currently low.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the risk to the public is low, according to a health department statement.
Research is underway on how infections are transmitted from cows and cows to people who work with them.
This is the third known human infection since highly pathogenic avian influenza, which is currently infecting dairy cattle in the United States. None of the three men were related, but they all worked with cattle, which is a condition that can be transmitted from cows to humans. The other two cases are eye infections or conjunctivitis.
The person had direct contact with infected cattle and notified local health authorities that they were feeling sick. Their symptoms are described as mild.
The Michigan Department of Health is recommending that people who work in poultry or dairy farms get a seasonal flu vaccine.
“It does not protect against bird flu viruses, but it can reduce the risk of contact with birds and flu viruses,” the health department said.
This is breaking news and will be updated.