The World Health Organization on Thursday called on countries to step up surveillance for bird flu after the first case was discovered in a child in the United States.
A small but growing number of H5N1 bird flu infections have been detected in people around the world in recent years, Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO's director of epidemics and pandemic preparedness and prevention, told a news conference.
“What we really need globally, in the US and abroad, is much stronger surveillance of animals: of wild birds, of poultry, of animals known to be susceptible to infection, including pigs, including dairy cattle, to “to better understand the circulatory system in these animals,” she said.
H5N1 first emerged in 1996, but since 2020 the number of outbreaks in birds has grown exponentially, alongside an increase in the number of infected mammals.
The species has caused the deaths of tens of millions of poultry, also infecting wild birds, terrestrial and marine mammals.
Human cases recorded in Europe and the United States since the virus surged have been largely mild.
In March, infections were discovered in several dairy herds in the United States.
U.S. health officials believe the risk to the general public is low — albeit higher for those who work directly with livestock, including birds, dairy cattle and more.
Last Friday, US authorities said a child in California became the first child in the United States to test positive for a bird flu infection. Health officials offered checks and preventative treatment to exposed contacts at the daycare center.
The child had mild symptoms and was expected to recover at home after treatment with flu antiviral drugs.
“Including this most recent case, there have now been 55 human cases of H5 bird flu reported in the United States in 2024, 29 of which were in California,” the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.
Van Kerkhove said all but two of them had known exposure to infected animals.
“We have seen no evidence of human-to-human transmission. But again, for each of these human detected cases, we want to see a very thorough investigation take place,” she said.
“We need much stronger efforts to reduce the risk of animal-to-animal infection for new species and for humans,” she added, especially through testing and proper protective equipment.
Van Kerkhove, the WHO's technical lead on Covid-19, stressed the importance of preparing “for when and if we find ourselves in a situation where we are in an influenza pandemic.”
“We are not in that situation yet, but we do need more vigilance.”
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