Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency Wednesday as the H5N1 bird flu virus moved from the Central Valley to Southern California dairy herds, while federal officials confirmed the first U.
According to the U. Department of Agriculture, dairy herds in California have reportedly been infected with the H5N1 virus since August. Nationwide, the number is and stretches back to March, when the virus was first detected in Texas herds.
There have also been a number of infections identified in pet cats in California, including three announced on Wednesday. According to the CDC, 61 people have acquired the virus since March β the vast majority at dairies or commercial poultry operations. Most suffered from mild illness, including conjunctivitis, or pink eye, and upper respiratory irritation. In California, 34 people have become infected with H5N1, with all but one contracting the virus from infected dairy.
The outlier was a child in Alameda County; the source of that infection has not been determined. There was also a suspected case in a child from Marin County who drank raw milk known to be infected with the virus. The CDC was unable to confirm illness in that child. The case in Louisiana is concerning to public health officials because of its severity. Federal officials would not provide details about the patient's symptoms, deferring all inquiries to Louisiana's Department of Public Health.
According to CDC officials, the patient was reportedly in close contact with sick and dead birds from a backyard flock on the patient's property. The virus was a version of the H5N1 bird flu that researchers have labeled D1. The strain circulating in dairy cows is known as B3. It was the D1. The source for that patient's infection remains unknown. According to Demetre Daskalakis, director of the CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, Louisiana health officials and the CDC are investigating the patient's contacts and performing further genetic analysis of the patient's virus to determine what, if any, changes may have have occurred.
