Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Person In Missouri Tests Positive For Bird Flu Despite No Known Exposure
USA Today: Missouri Resident Contracts Bird Flu With No Known Exposure
A Missouri resident has tested positive for bird flu even though there is no evidence the person came into contact with an animal infected with the virus, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a Friday evening news release. Acquiring the virus without animal contact raises safety concerns because it may be an indication that the potentially quite deadly virus could develop the ability to transmit from human-to-human, although the CDC still considers such a risk "low" at the moment. (Weintraub and Cuevas, 9/6)
Stat: 5 Burning Questions About Missouri’s Mysterious H5 Bird Flu Case
News that a person in Missouri contracted H5 bird flu despite having no known contact with infected animals or birds — in other words, no evident route of infection — raises pressing questions public health officials are surely scurrying to answer. The rationale for that urgency is this: An unexplained H5 infection raises the possibility of person-to-person spread of a flu virus that has never before circulated in humans, and to which people would not have immunity. And this with a dangerous flu virus that scientists have long feared could someday trigger a pandemic. (Branswell, 9/8)
KFF Health News: Journalists Give Rundown On Bird Flu Risks, HIV Rates, And The Fate Of Shuttered Hospitals
KFF Health News and California Healthline staff made the rounds on state and local media in recent weeks to discuss topical stories. Here’s a collection of their appearances. (9/7)
In updates on mpox —
Detroit Free Press: Michigan Mpox Infection Is Clade II Variant Of Virus: Why That Matters
The mpox infection that sickened a person from Wayne County in August was caused by the clade II variant of the virus, spokesperson Kimberly Harry told the Free Press on Thursday. It's the same, less severe strain of mpox virus that sparked international outbreaks in 2022 and has continued to trigger sporadic cases in Michigan and across the U.S. (Shamus, 9/6)
NBC News: U.S. Prepares For Possible Arrival Of More Severe Strain Of Mpox
Senior Biden administration officials said Friday that the United States is preparing for the possible arrival of a more severe version of mpox, which has taken off in the Democratic Republic of Congo and other countries in Africa resulting in more than 600 deaths there. As of Thursday, there have been more than 24,800 reported cases of this version of the virus, known as clade 1, so far this year, the World Health Organization said at a separate briefing Friday. The WHO declared the outbreak a global health emergency in August. (Lovelace Jr., 9/6)
Reuters: India Reports Case Of Mpox In Traveler From Affected Country
India had recorded a suspected case of mpox found in a man who recently travelled from a country suffering an outbreak of the virus, the health ministry said on Sunday. The ministry did not specify which strain of the mpox virus the patient might have, but tests were being conducted to confirm the infection. (9/8)
The Telegraph: Mpox Sufferers Reveal What It's Really Like To Have The Disease
“My throat felt like it was closing up on me and it was hard to even swallow water because it felt like razors were in my throat. The lesions became so infected that I developed cellulitis [a potentially fatal bacterial infection of the skin and underneath tissues]. I was scared at one point I was going to die," said one man. (Cullinan, 9/6)
