Inadequate bird flu testing is making pandemic experts concerned we're "flying blind" with H5N1
10 months, 3 weeks ago

Inadequate bird flu testing is making pandemic experts concerned we're "flying blind" with H5N1

Salon  

After public health officials confirmed H5N1, the virus also known as bird flu, jumped from poultry to cows and recently infected an American, they’ve warned that if the virus strain made its way to pigs, it could be a time to press the panic button. This specific trait might allow the virus to sp “The biggest question is whether cows are mixing vessels like pigs; pigs are well-known mixing vessels for influenza because they have both avian and human receptors and that allows a virus to mutate pretty easily and to make it more susceptible to humans,” Katelyn Jetelina, an epidemiologist and author of the newsletter Your Local Epidemiologist, told Salon. “So it really opens up more questions and answers at this point.” Dr. Rajendram Rajnarayanan of the New York Institute of Technology campus in Jonesboro, Ark., told Salon this preliminary report “changes things a lot.” “That means that if you let the virus collect in cows a lot, then soon you’re going to see an adaptation that's going to pick it up in humans and other mammals,” he said. “And I think all we can do is try to explain why we want them to be tested, protect them with incentives for example, paid time-off would be great.” But as it stands, Jetelina said “we’re flying blind.” Rajnarayanan said at the moment, he’s at his “highest level of concern.” “We are running blind, we don't really have a lot of data,” he said.

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