PBS
Geoff Bennett:
There is growing concern tonight about the continuing spread of the highly contagious bird flu in the U.S.
As William Brangham explains, while federal health officials say the risk to humans is low, the virus has now spread to dairy cattle and sickened one person — William.
William Brangham:
That’s right, Geoff.
This strain of bird flu, called H5N1, has been sickening bird flocks across America for a few years now. Millions have been killed to prevent further spread. Yesterday, the country’s biggest egg producer halted productions when chickens at one of its facilities got sick.
But this virus has also been infecting mammals, most recently dairy cows, in five different states. This week, a person in Texas tested positive after working with cattle. He’s had mild symptoms and is expected to recover.
For more on this virus, we are joined again by Jennifer Nuzzo. She runs the Pandemic Center at Brown University School of Public Health.
Jennifer Nuzzo, so good to have you back on the program.
Dr. Mandy Cohen, the head of the CDC, says the risk to humans from this virus is low, they’re monitoring it, and there’s no reason to worry at this point. Is that where you come down?
Dr. Jennifer Nuzzo, Brown University School of Public Health: So I think it’s true that the risk to the general public is quite low, and I think it’s also important that we continue to monitor this virus to make sure that doesn’t change.
The one thing I do quite worry about is the risk to farmworkers, people who would be exposed to the sick animals, because we do know that exposure to sick animals can result in human infection. And we have already seen that now to date in two cases in the United States, the most recent one being in a worker that worked with sick cows.
So I do worry about protecting farmworkers. But for the general public, the risk of contracting this virus is currently low.
