A confusing stop in cases reported with human bird flu has forced health authorities to call for alertness, even when experts are struggling with several theories about sudden drops.
While officials continue to be cautious, questions about possible contributing factors, including the impact of government decline in the case, increased fear among migratory farm workers – a population affected by the virus – seeks to tests due to concerns of migration implementation and the possibility of natural infections.
“We just don’t know why there were no things,” said Jennifer Novo, director of the epidemic at Brown University. “I think we should assume that there are infections that occur in farm workers that are not just identified.”
The H5N1 bird flu has been spreading around the wild birds, poultry and other animals around the world for many years and began to be a problem in people and cows in the United States earlier last year
In the past 14 months, infections have been reported in 70 people in the United States – most of them work on dairy and poultry farms. One person died, but most infected people had a mild illness.
The latest infections confirmed by Disease Control and Prevention Centers in early February were in Nevada, Ohio and Wyoming.
California was a focus with three -quarters of the country’s infections in dairy cows. But experimentation and cases have been lost. At least 50 people were tested each month in late 2024, but only three were tested in March, one in April and none in May. In general, the state has confirmed the H5N1 infection in 38 people, none of them after January 14.
Why the bird flu case decreases
During contact with US doctors this month, a CDC official noted: There is a season for bird flu: cases peak in the fall and early winter, probably due to wild bird migration patterns that are the main spread of the virus.
This can mean that the United States experiences naturally – perhaps temporary.
“It is unlikely that a severe human infection, which needs hospitalization, is unlikely to pay attention to the hospital,” said Michael Ostermalm, a University of Minnesota specialist in infectious diseases.
In addition, the patch system that controls sewage and sewage viruses has recently proposed limited activity.
New infections are still found in birds and cows, but a few months ago not frequently.
“Given the fact that the number of animals has declined in accordance with USDA data, it is no wonder that human cases have also declined,” the CDC said in a statement.
Does the government’s decline affect the monitoring of bird flu?
Dr. Gregory Gary said he is not worried that the CDC will identify new ones in months.
“I don’t think anyone will hide something,” Gary said.
But Osterrolam and some other experts think that at least some milder infections are probably not discovered. And they are worried that trying to find them has been disappearing.
“Resignation at the US Department of Agriculture and the Veterinary Center of the Food and Drug Administration could slow down the government’s bird flu,” said Keith Polsen, director of the Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnosis Laboratory.
He said three out of 14 experts accepted the proposal of deferred resignation in the National Animal Health Laboratory Network, which responds to the prevalence of the disease with important diagnostic information. The agency spokesman said they are among more than 15,000 USDA employees to accept suggestions.
And dozens of employees were fired on the FDA Veterinary Laboratory and Accountability Network, examining animal diseases caused by problems, including PET infected foods. Cats have become ill in several states and died after eating pet food that contains a poultry contaminated with H5N1.
Angela Rasmussen, a virgin at the University of Saskatchewan, Canada, said: “Targeted supervision has really been lost since Trump’s tenure.”
He wonders whether the migratory farm workers are very scared to come forward.
“I can’t argue with anyone who has the risk of sending to a Salvador Bay for exposure to exposure or experimentation,” he said.
The CDC shows the risk to the general public, though more for people who work with cattle and chicken or in contact with wild birds.
Earlier this month, an agency assessment announced that there is a “average risk” that can now cause a future epidemic strain, but CDC emphasized that other emerging forms of bird flu in the past have been similarly labeled.
Research is still ongoing.
David Daprat, a workplace health and safety specialist, said: “Scientists at the University of Texas have collected blood samples from dairy workers in several states to expose their symptoms to H5N1.” This one -year study is provided with a donation of nearly $ 4 million from the CDC and is expected to be completed in July.
He said he has used relations with manufacturers and dairy workers to reach farms for two decades.
“We have had a very good partnership,” said Difrat. “They’ve been very willing.”
“Similar monitoring of domestic cats is” immediately needed “,” said Kristen Coleman, a researcher at the University of Maryland, who is studying for emerging animal diseases. He recently published an article that examines a bird flu in cats in cats between 2004 and 2024.
Warehouse cats, who died after drinking raw milk, were one of the first symptoms that dairy cows were infected with bird flu in 2024. Since then, the Ministry of Agriculture has confirmed more than 120 home -infected cats throughout the United States.
Infections are mostly found in cats who died. It is less known for milder infections, whether cats can recover from bird flu – or whether the virus can be shed in people.
Coleman is collecting blood samples of cats across the United States to see if there is evidence of previous exposure to the virus. But the process is slow and the research budget is unclear.
“It is easy to go down because it is usually what one does,” he said. “But what we really have to do is increase.”
