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A child in California has become the first in the United States to test positive for a bird flu infection, officials said Friday, as health officials offered checks and preventive treatment to exposed contacts at a child’s day care center. .
According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the California Department of Public Health, the child, from Alameda County in the San Francisco Bay Area, had mild symptoms and is said to be recovering from antiviral flu treatment. After recovering at home. (CDPH).
As a precaution, the child’s immediate family members were tested, all of which came back negative.
Local officials have also contacted caregivers and family at the day care facility, where the child showed mild symptoms before testing positive.
An initial test detected low levels of the bird flu virus, suggesting the child was likely not contagious at the time of the test. A follow-up test four days later came back negative.
In the United States, daycare centers typically care for children between the ages of six weeks and five years.
“It’s natural for people to be concerned, and we want to reassure parents, caregivers and families that based on the information and data we have, we don’t think The kid was contagious.”
“No human-to-human transmission of bird flu has been documented in any country for more than 15 years,” he added.
Official statements emphasized that in the rare cases of human-to-human transmission of bird flu, the spread has been limited to very few close contacts.
Isolated and rare human cases of bird flu, with unclear sources of exposure or infection, are expected. These have occurred both historically and during ongoing outbreaks, which public health officials began monitoring in 2022.
“Including this latest case, 55 human cases of H5 bird flu have been reported in the United States during 2024, with 29 in California,” the CDC said.
The CDC continues to estimate that the risk to the general public is low — though high for people who work directly with livestock, including poultry, dairy cattle, and more.
A multistate outbreak of the flu — technically highly pathogenic avian influenza, or H5N1 bird flu — was first reported in dairy cows in March.
The increasing frequency and diversity of mammalian infections in recent years has raised concerns about the adaptation of the virus and its potential for cross-species transmission.
(Other than the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
