California declares state of emergency due to bird flu

California Governor Gavin Newsom has declared a state of emergency following confirmation of the first serious case of bird flu infection in a human in the country.

According to the New York Times, the patient is in a Louisiana hospital, awaiting further tests and being monitored.

The Federal Department of Agriculture had already estimated that some 645 heads of cattle had been infected with the H5N1 virus since last summer, although at the beginning of the year, it was already known that 800 animals had tested positive for the virus in Texas and Kansas.

The measure adopted by Gavin Newsom is of a preventive nature, and seeks to keep infected cattle in the Central Valley area of California, preventing them from going to metropolitan areas with high population density, such as Los Angeles or San Diego.

Photo: Governor Gavin Newsom Web

In a statement shared on his website, Gavin Newsom said that while the risk to the public remains low, authorities will continue to take all necessary measures to prevent the virus from spreading. The Covid-19 pandemic is still too present globally to be risked again.

In fact, to reassure citizens even more, the politician assured that, so far, there had been no human-to-human transmission in California. Almost all infected people have tested positive after coming into contact with infected animals.

The premise of a low risk of contagion in humans has been ratified in a statement by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CVC), which has also confirmed 61 cases of infected people in 16 states across the country.

The majority of infected people work on farms, where outbreaks of the H5N1 virus have occurred. Of the 61 infected, the CVC confirms that 37 patients came into contact with cattle herds, while another 21 came into contact with chickens and birds. The source of the infection for the remaining three is still pending verification.

One of them, according to the CDC report, was a minor who began showing symptoms after drinking unpasteurized cow's milk.

Gavin Newsom wants to prevent California from becoming the gateway to the United States for a massive spread of bird flu, as happened with the coronavirus, and that is why he has been blunt in his declaration of a state of emergency.

As for the Louisiana patient, a CDC representative told CNN that the person is over the age of 65 and had had contact with sick or dead birds from a flock in their backyard. In this case, this is the first patient to become infected outside of an industrial poultry farm setting.

According to USA Today, the patient is in critical condition, with serious breathing problems, although these were aggravated by bird flu, as the patient already had a previous respiratory condition.

A report by the World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that 889 people have been infected with bird flu in the last 21 years, and that the death rate is 52%, or 463 people. Obviously, it is essential to contain the spread of the virus as much as possible. It remains to be seen whether this will be achieved.

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