The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday California has confirmed a third human case of H5 bird flu. All three confirmed cases had occupational exposure to infected air cows. File Photo by James Gathany/Centers for Disease Control and Prevention/Wikimedia Commons
Oct. 10 (UPI) — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said California has confirmed a third human case of H5 bird flu.
The CDC said in a Thursday statement that all three confirmed cases had occupational exposure to infected air cows.
“To date, all three California cases occurred in dairy workers from three different affected farms with no known contact with each other, suggesting animal-to-human spread. Also consistent with the two previous California cases, the person experienced mild symptoms, including eye redness or discharge (conjunctivitis). None of the three cases has been hospitalized,” the agency said.
The CDC said this third California case doesn’t change the assessment of low risk for the general public from bird flu.
Since 2022, the CDC said, 18 human cases of H5 bird flu have been confirmed.
The CDC is waiting for two “additional presumptive positive specimens from California for confirmatory testing.”
The CDC statement said the first two California cases showed no signs of virus mutation that would increase human spread risk.
“There were no genetic changes observed that are known to be associated with an increased ability to infect or spread between people or known to reduce susceptibility to antiviral medications,” the CDC said.
People who work with and therefore are exposed to the virus in animals have a greater risk than the general public of contracting H5 bird flu.
The first two California cases were farm workers who tested positive Oct. 3.
The CDC said they were separate instances of animal-to-human H5 bird flu virus spread.
Health departments and the CDC are working to try to contain bird flu spread. So far, according to the CDC, 254 dairy cow herds have been infected.