As announced on 30 May 2024 by the Michigan department of health & Human Services, a third dairy man worker in Michigan has been diagnosed with bird flu which has caused a low risk to the general public and USDA has funded $824 million to protect livestock health.
A Michigan dairy farm worker was exposed to dairy cows and contracted H5N1 (bird flu) virus, unlike the two previous cases. The worker, who was not wearing personal protective equipment (PPE), had respiratory symptoms like cough, congestion, sore throat, and watery eyes.
Shah stated, “This does not change the CDC H5 risk assessment level for the general public, which remains low,” notwithstanding the third worker’s varied symptoms. This occurs as a result of the three workers’ close contact with diseased animals. Shah stressed that there hasn’t been any evidence of human-to-human transfer.
According to him, it does demonstrate why employees on dairy farms need to wear personal protective equipment (PPE). According to him, the CDC has made PPE from the national stockpile available to the states.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has announced $824 million in funding to protect livestock health from HPAI. The USDA also launched a voluntary pilot program to test herds not infected and allows farmers to ship cows with ongoing negative testing. Testing on 109 cow samples has been completed.
Source : https://www.webmd.com/cold-and-flu/news/20240530/bird-flu-affects-third-farm-worker-risk-to-public-still-low
