United States: Five poultry workers in who have been diagnosed with bird flu are suffering with this deadly flu says the state health officials. The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE)recently said this Sunday.
Some of these workers were exposed to an avian influenza outbreak at a commercial egg layer operation. The CDPHE is working closely with the Colorado Department of Agriculture, the State Emergency Operations Center, CDC to manage the situation.
Origin and Response Coordination
CDC has confirmed the four of the cases and one additional case is already pending confirmation at CDC,” the CDPHE added.
In the beginning there were three cases that were confirmed by the CDC on Friday and then the fourth case was confirmed late Friday evening, the case has yet to be confirmed as the sample has been sent to CDC for the confirmation, said the Colorado officials. Though there are no test results which are pending.
All the illnesses caused by it were not that affective and the symptoms are red, irritated eyes, fever, chills, sore throat, and runny nose, though none of the patients have been hospitalized. The other cases of the bird flu reported in the workers exposed to the dairy cows have also been mild.
The Colorado workers were actually exposed to it while working in a poultry at a farm in northeast part of the state and they had direct contact with the infected birds, says official.
CDC Involvement and Public Health Measures
The CDC prepared a team of nine people in Colorado to help in the investigation, at the states’ request agency officials said in a news release which was issues on Friday.
As reported in the U.S. News, the risk to the public still remains low until someone is in direct contact with infected birds, and as we learn more, we will continue to assess the situation and provide the updates and information related to it.
Since in 2020, a bird flu virus has been spreading among the mammals and including even the alpacas. In the initial stage it was known as H5N1 and was detected in the dairy cows, and it is now circulating in the livestock in several states.
The cases were detected earlier among the dairy farm worker in the Michigan, Colorado and Texas.