Bird Flu Update as CDC Issues New Recommendations

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) urges state and local health officials to keep up with influenza testing over the summer to track any potential human infections of the H5N1 virus, also know as bird flu.

CDC Principal Deputy Director Nirav Shah told a variety of health leaders during a meeting on Tuesday that flu surveillance programs should “continue operating at enhanced levels” over the next several months, according to a readout of the call. The recommendations are intended to help keep a “heightened awareness” of influenza transmission during the summer season amid an outbreak of the H5N1 virus in poultry and U.S. dairy cattle.

Local health officials are encouraged to work with laboratories to increase submissions of positive flu virus samples for subtyping, the process used to determine whether an influenza sample is a “common, seasonal” flu virus or a “novel virus” like the bird flu, the CDC said.

The meeting on Tuesday included CDC Influenza Division Director Vivien Dugan; the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials; the Association of Public Health Laboratories; Big Cities Health Coalition; the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists; and the National Association of County and City Health Officials.

Newsweek reached out to the CDC via email for additional information on Tuesday.

Only two known cases of human H5N1 infections have been reported in the United States. A dairy farm worker in Texas tested positive for the virus last month. The first case was reported in 2022 and involved a Colorado poultry worker.

According to the CDC’s count, over 90 million cases of the H5N1 virus have been detected in wild aquatic birds, poultry and common backyard flocks across the nation since January 2022. The first known transmission of the virus to dairy cattle was reported in Texas in March. To date, 51 dairy herds across nine U.S. states have reported an outbreak in the bird flu virus in livestock.

There has been concern that the spread of bird flu in animals could lead to a new epidemic or pandemic, although there have been no reported cases of human-to-human transmission. The CDC issued a health alert on April 1 after reports of the Texas dairy farmer’s positive case, but told Newsweek at the time that the risk of infection “to the general public” remains “low.”

Those working with birds or livestock are encouraged to use personal protective equipment to lower the risk of H5N1 infection. Symptoms of the virus can include acute respiratory illness, conjunctivitis, sore throat, fever, coughing and shortness of breath.

According to the World Health Organization, there have been 889 human cases of bird flu infections from 2003 to April 2024 across 23 countries. Of those cases, 463, or 52 percent, have resulted in death.