Two people from Wyoming and Ohio are hospitalized along with the H5N1 avian flu, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in their routine flu update Friday.
Reports show that Wyoming people are still in hospital while Ohio patients are released. Both patients experienced “respiratory and non-responsive symptoms,” the report says, but does not detail these symptoms.
“We’ve seen a lot of people who have had a lot of trouble with their health,” said Angela Rasmussen, a virologist for vaccine and infectious disease tissue at the University of Saskatchewan.
The news is in one of the worst outbreaks of seasonal flu in 15 years. It increases the chances of the emergence of more dangerous viruses called the avian flu and seasonal influenza.
“I am very concerned about H5N1 in patients treated in hospitals with many seasonal flu cases.
These are the first human H5 cases detected in Wyoming and Ohio.
A “old” woman from Platt County, Wyoming, has been hospitalized in another state, according to a statement from the Wyoming Department of Health. She “has a health condition that can make people more vulnerable to illness,” the statement said.
The CDC reports that the woman was exposed to poultry in a backyard herd that tested positive for H5N1 and added that she remained hospitalized at the time of reporting.
A man from Mercer County, Ohio, was infected while negligently or murdering a poultry positive for H5N1 at a commercial facility, according to a statement from the Ohio Department of Health.
This man has been discharged from the hospital. “I’m currently recovering at home,” the CDC report states.
So far, there have been 70 confirmed cases of highly pathogenic avian influenza in the United States since it was first detected in cattle last year.
At this point there is no evidence of human-to-human transmission. The majority of cases were not among people in close contact with the animals.
Previously, a Missouri patient was hospitalized and tested positive for avian influenza after a known exposure. Then the Louisiana man was hospitalized and died after being exposed to chickens and wild birds in his backyard.
The 13-year-old girl was also very ill and was in hospital for several months in British Columbia after unknown exposure.
Cases in Louisiana and BC were both caused by a variant of H5N1 that appeared in the fall and quickly became dominant in birds.
New spills come as the Trump administration considers strategies that will not contain poultry outbreaks through depopulation.
The new head of the health agency, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., reportedly has suspended seasonal flu vaccine campaigns. The scheduled meeting of the CDC’s Independent Vaccine Committee has also been postponed.
New research published by the CDC Journal of Emerging Infectious Diseases provides insight into why it is less severe than other cases.
The researchers infected the ferret with H1N1 and three months later they were infected with the hypopathogenic variants H5N1 or H7N9.
H1N1 was the swine flu that caused the outbreak of 2009-10. It never went away – in fact, it’s one of the two seasonal variations behind this year’s flu season.
Recent ferrets with H1N1 antibodies can neutralize H5N1 more rapidly than H7N9, indicating some protection from previous infections.
Another new study in the same journal found that ferrets first infected with H1N1 had fewer severe disease from H5N1. This suggests that some people may experience the same thing, the authors write.
“This is evidence that previous H1N1 infections or vaccinations may provide some degree of mutual protection through anti-N1 immunity,” Rasmussen said.
However, it is not clear to what extent protection will help people.
“This should not be interpreted as not to be interpreted, meaning protection is absolute in the population,” Rasmussen said.
