Bird flu has been around for about three decades, but a recent spike in cases in humans has some experts concerned. Former Baltimore Health Commissioner Dr. Leana Wen said on “Face the Nation” Sunday, “So, we’ve already seen this year that there have been a number of mammalian species close to humans that now have bird flu outbreaks. We have outbreaks in poultry in all 50 states.”
Sixteen states also have bird flu outbreaks in cattle, Wen added. “In California, in the last 30 days, there have been more than 300 herds that tested positive, and now we have 66 cases of bird flu in humans,” she continued. And it’s likely the number of cases in humans is underreported, as “we have not been doing nearly enough testing.”
The person who is sick with bird flu in Louisiana is also “severely ill,” Wen also said. “But not only that, researchers have isolated the virus in this individual who is sick in Louisiana, and they found that this particular strain of the virus appears to have acquired mutations that make it more likely to bind to airway receptors.”
But in that 30-year span of time, bird flu hasn’t been “a major issue in humans” so far — though a secondary concern is that it’s possible to have the seasonal flu at the same time as the bird flu, and the two viruses “could exchange genes.”
“You could develop a new hybrid virus, and if you now have a virus that’s more contagious and causes more severe disease, that’s when it becomes a major threat to humankind,” Wen explained.
The Louisiana patient was the first to be hospitalized with a severe case of the disease, the New York Times reported Friday. An examination of the patient’s nasal and throat swabs “suggested that viruses in nature had not yet acquired the concerning mutations,” the outlet also noted, but cautioned that if the virus continues to spread between people, it will likely learn to adapt to humans at a fast rate.
You can watch the interview with Dr. Leana Wen in the video above.
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