As Avian flu (also known as bird flu) spreads across US dairy and poultry farms, five more people have tested positive for the virus. Bird flu has led to the death of millions of poultry birds and cows in the US and abroad in the last few years. So far, human cases in the US have been much rarer, and the symptoms have generally been on the milder side, including conjunctivitis and respiratory symptoms. However, the continued, uncontrolled outbreaks among animals, combined with sporadic human infections, raise concerns about a crisis that experts have warned about for two decades: a global human bird flu pandemic. The longer the virus is able to mutate among animals, the closer it comes to developing the ability to easily infect people.
Full Story: CIDRAP
