“A/H5N1 virus can also infect mammals (including humans) that have been exposed to infected birds; in these cases, symptoms are frequently severe or fatal.[2]”
“Due to the high lethality and virulence of HPAI A(H5N1), its worldwide presence, its increasingly diverse host reservoir, and its significant ongoing mutations, the H5N1 virus is regarded as the world's largest pandemic threat.[16]”
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Influenza_A_virus_subtype_H5...
The fact that the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services is still finding such individuals weeks after the H5N1 patient was released from hospital is raising concerns about the rigor of the investigation that the state is running. The CDC cannot send investigators to a state unless its help is requested, and that hasn’t happened.
<https://www.statnews.com/2024/09/27/bird-flu-missouri-four-m...>
One of the factors that strongly contributed to a previous pandemic's early spread was exceedingly poor track-and-trace epidemiological surveillance. Finding that particular failure being repeated so soon afterwards is indeed distressing.
The most important thing is tracing and isolating the carriers before it spreads, and before it's had a chance to evolve and become more transmissible yet. Influenza in general is one of the hardest pathogens to contain.
I can’t take such statements seriously after what happened during COVID, with various organizations initially downplaying the issue, then taking it to new heights of hysteria, changing stances on masks, not seriously pursuing the lab leak theory, seeking to censor/oppress different opinions, etc. I am concerned that statements like this look just like what happened at the start of COVID.
> The fact that the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services is still finding such individuals weeks after the H5N1 patient was released from hospital is raising concerns about the rigor of the investigation that the state is running.
> As of Friday, 239 herds in 14 states have tested positive for H5N1, though that is believed to be an underestimate of the true scope of the outbreak. Missouri is not among the states that reported infected dairy herds.
Are we once again going to take it less seriously than we should only to then swing to the other extreme later?