How to Stop Bird Flu from Becoming the Next Pandemic

If H5N1 turns into a full-blown pandemic, we are currently in chapter one. To prevent chapter two from becoming a reality, the most important tool in our arsenal will be widespread testing. Testing isn’t just about diagnosing people with the virus. Containing the spread of this highly pathogenic bird flu strain in cattle hinges on our ability to detect and track it. The H5N1 outbreak in dairy cows is widespread and spans multiple U.S. states. Although only one human infection with the virus has been documented, more infections are likely going undetected. Most importantly, unchecked transmission among cattle means the virus is increasingly bumping up against humans. Every human exposure, in turn, provides an opportunity for new mutations that could enable human-to-human transmission. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) maintains that as of now, the risk to the general public from H5N1 remains low. And indeed, it is entirely possible H5N1 might never turn into a human pandemic. However, being wrong would be incredibly costly.  We find ourselves in a situation reminiscent of early 2020, when the U.S. stood on the brink of the COVID-19 pandemic and hesitated to take decisive action, restricting testing to only those with epidemiological links to China. Scientists estimate that by early March 2020, less than 1% of SARS-CoV-2 infections in the U.S. were detected by testing. We effectively ...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized healthscienceclimate Source Type: news