Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Bird Flu Found In San Francisco Market; Larger Outbreak Hits Iowa Turkey Farm
San Francisco Chronicle: H5N1 Bird Flu Detected In SF, First In California City Wastewater
Two chickens at a live bird market in San Francisco tested positive for H5N1 avian flu last month, authorities announced Monday. The San Francisco Department of Public Health reported that state health officials discovered the infected, asymptomatic birds during a routine monitoring program conducted by the California Department of Food and Agriculture. The testing comes amid the current national bird flu outbreak. (Vaziri, 6/3)
Des Moines Register: Bird Flu Outbreak Infects 103,000 Turkeys At Iowa Facility
The second bird flu outbreak in a week was reported Sunday, with nearly 103,000 turkeys infected in northwest Iowa’s Cherokee County. The Iowa Department of Agriculture reported Tuesday, May 28 that an egg facility with 4.2 million laying hens was infected with the highly pathogenic avian influenza. (Eller, 6/2)
Detroit Free Press: Michigan Has Most Cow Herds, People Infected With Bird Flu In US
Michigan has become ground zero for the highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza virus that's sweeping the nation, killing turkeys, chickens and wild birds, infecting cows and other mammals – and now has sickened a third U.S. farmworker. The Great Lakes state has more dairy cattle herds known to be infected with avian influenza than any other state in the U.S., with 24 outbreaks in 10 counties as of Friday, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. It now also has two farmworkers with confirmed bird flu infections – transmitted to them by close contact with sick cows. (Jordan Shamus, 6/3)
CIDRAP: H5 Influenza Wastewater Dashboard Launches
WastewaterSCAN, a national wastewater monitoring system based at Stanford University in partnership with Emory University, today launched an H5 avian influenza wastewater dashboard today, which shows detections at about a dozen locations, mostly in Texas and Michigan. (Schnirring, 6/3)
Also —
Los Angeles Times: Despite The Spread Of Bird Flu, Lawmakers In Some States Are Pushing To Legalize Raw Milk
For more than 160 years, pasteurization has been heralded as one of the most effective and efficient forms of ensuring public food safety. But as health officials scramble to ascertain and contain the spread of bird flu in the nation’s dairy cattle, a growing number of state governments are turning their back on this gold standard of public health. In the last four weeks, Iowa, Louisiana and Delaware have either passed legislation or are in the process of moving bills that would legalize the commercial sale of raw milk for human consumption within their borders. (Rust, 6/4)
Scientific American: Why Bird Flu Is Infecting People’s Eyes
In the recent H5N1 outbreak in cows and infections in humans, viruses that got into workers’ eyes may have bound to receptors in the conjunctiva, the clear membrane that covers the inside of the eyelid and the white of the eye and protects the eye. Influenza viruses bind to what are called sialic acid receptors. The accepted wisdom suggests that avian flu viruses preferentially bind to one type of sialic acid receptor predominant in birds, whereas human seasonal flu viruses bind to another type of sialic acid receptor predominant in the human respiratory tract, says Patrik Ellström, an infection medicine researcher at Sweden’s Uppsala University. But recent research suggests the picture is more complicated; both receptor types have now been found in the respiratory tracts of humans and birds. (Lewis, 6/3)
