"We just don't know why there haven't been cases," said Jennifer Nuzzo, director of the Pandemic Center at Brown University. "I think we should assume there are infections that are occurring in farmworkers that just aren't being detected."
The H5N1 bird flu has been spreading widely among wild birds, poultry and other animals around the world for several years, and starting early last year became a problem in people and cows in the U.S.
In the last 14 months, infections have been reported in 70 people in the U.S.—most of them workers on dairy and poultry farms. One person died, but most of the infected people had mild illnesses.
The most recent infections confirmed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were in early February in Nevada, Ohio and Wyoming.
The H5N1 bird flu has been spreading widely among wild birds, poultry and other animals around the world for several years, and starting early last year became a problem in people and cows in the U.S.
In the last 14 months, infections have been reported in 70 people in the U.S.—most of them workers on dairy and poultry farms. One person died, but most of the infected people had mild illnesses.
The most recent infections confirmed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were in early February in Nevada, Ohio and Wyoming.
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CreativityTranscript
00:00Health officials are making a renewed call for vigilance against bird flu,
00:03but some experts are puzzling over why reports of new human cases have stopped.
00:07Has the search for cases been weakened by government cuts?
00:11Are immigrant farm workers, who have accounted for many of the U.S. cases,
00:14more afraid to come forward for testing amid the Trump administration's deportation push?
00:19Is it just a natural ebb in infections?
00:21We just don't know why there haven't been cases, said Jennifer Nuzzo,
00:25director of the Pandemic Center at Brown University.
00:27I think we should assume there are infections that are occurring in farm workers that just
00:31aren't being detected. The H5N1 bird flu has been spreading widely among wild birds,
00:37poultry and other animals around the world for several years, and starting early last year
00:41became a problem in people and cows in the U.S. In the last 14 months, infections have been reported
00:46in 70 people in the U.S., most of them workers on dairy and poultry farms. One person died,
00:52but most of the infected people had mild illnesses. The most recent infections confirmed by the
00:57Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were in early February in Nevada, Ohio and Wyoming.
01:02California had been a hotspot, with three-quarters of the nation's infections in dairy cattle.
01:07But testing and cases among people have fallen off. At least 50 people were tested each month in
01:13late 2024, but just three people were tested in March, one in April and none in May so far,
01:18state records show. Overall, the state has confirmed H5N1 infections in 38 people,
01:23none after January. 14. It's unlikely that a severe human infection requiring hospitalization
01:30would go unnoticed, said Michael Osterholm, a University of Minnesota expert on infectious
01:35diseases. What's more, a patchwork system that monitors viruses in sewage and wastewater has
01:40suggested limited activity recently. New infections are still being detected in birds and cattle,
01:46but not as frequently as several months ago. Given the fact that the number of animal detections
01:50has fallen according to USDA data, it's not surprising the human cases have declined as well,
01:55the CDC said in a statement.