Wyoming women and Ohio farm workers have marked the latest Americans hospitalized with avian flu as the virus continues to destroy the poultry and cattle industry.
Avian influenza has caused one death in the US since April last year, bringing nearly 70 cases. Since January, three people have been hospitalized with bird flu, including an elderly person who died in Louisiana. Prior to that, a Missouri man was hospitalized in September due to unrelated health issues, and also had avian flu. In Canada, a teenage girl became seriously ill in November due to serious respiratory problems from the avian flu, also known as the high-reproductive avian flu.
Since the summer, the US has begun preparing about 10 million doses of vaccines that are believed to be effective against H5N1 avian flu. Given that the disease is relatively mild, with mainly redness in the eyes and flu-like symptoms, and influenza-like symptoms that do not require hospitalization, and there is no evidence of human transmission to humans. Federal officials have yet to choose not to use the vaccine. Health officials say the risk of avian influenza to the general public is low.
But as more people are hospitalized with avian flu, health experts say preemptive vaccinations can prevent further transmission from animals to humans.
Multiple requests to federal agencies – administration for strategic preparation and response tasked with stockpiling vaccines, the Department of Health and Human Services’ ministry was not returned.
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Dr. Hana Elle Sally, professor of molecular virology, microbiology and infectious diseases at Baylor School of Medicine in Houston, states that the national stockpile focuses vaccination efforts on first responders and at-risk populations. He said it should be sufficient.
These vaccines should also protect against strain D1.1, the latest variant of avian influenza detected in Nevada dairy cow workers last week. Previously, cattle carried the B3.13 genotype as bird liquid spilled on dairy cows in Texas in early 2024.
Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Center for Vaccine Education at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, said the vaccines stocked are approved and ready for mobilization. Health officials can begin vaccinating farm workers at risk of contracting avian flu from poultry and cattle.
“What you want to do is limit the spread of the virus from animals to humans,” he said. This limits the chances of the virus mutating and becoming more contagious among humans.
Finnish health authorities are already using some of the vaccines stocked by high-risk people. They began to expose 20,000 doses to people over the age of 18 to animals that believed to be susceptible to avian flu, including workers in the country’s mink industry.
However, Dr. Richard Webbbe, a virologist at St. Jude Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, said the absorption of the vaccine is low because he hesitates to use the vaccine and doesn’t recognize avian flu as a “high threat.” Masu.
Both Finnish and the US avian flu vaccine are made by CSL isolation, but they are a variety of vaccines. In the summer, US officials restocked 4.8 million vaccines that officials said were effective against circulating H5N1 strains. In October, the US issued $72 million grants to three manufacturers, doubling the country’s stockpile.
Collectively, authorities said about 10 million doses would be ready by spring. In the email response, CSL mentioned the announcement of its funding in October.
Offit’s worrying vaccine hesitation could also play a role in the US preparation for avian flu. On Friday, the Trump administration issued an executive order banning federal funding for Covid-19 mandate at schools.
State legislators and health officials have begun to follow the lawsuit. The Louisiana Department of Health said last week that it will generally stop promoting mass vaccinations just a month after the state recorded the country’s first avian flu death.
The Trump administration has also significantly reduced the federal workforce at key health agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration, and the National Institutes of Health.
“You’re under this attack by public health agencies, so that’s the worst time possible,” he said. “They are essentially dysfunctional for now when you need them to work.”
In the meantime, US officials have begun efforts to vaccinate livestock workers with seasonal flu shots. The vaccine does not provide protection against H5N1. However, health experts say it can prevent the use of both the highly contagious seasonal influenza and the extremely dangerous H5N1 at the same time.
Existing antiviral drugs such as Tamiflu are also effective in treating people infected with avian influenza.
As of mid-November, the CDC has been involved in animals such as California, Colorado, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, California, Idaho, Kansas, and New Mexico. It has provided more than 100,000 seasonal influenza vaccines to 12 states affected by the avian flu outbreak. Ohio, South Dakota, Texas.
Pharmaceutical company Moderna is also developing avian influenza vaccines for humans and has received approximately $766 million from the US government for its advances.
The company said last month it was preparing to advance its experimental shot mRNA-1018 to late stage trials, based on preliminary data from early to mid-stage studies.
Contribution: Reuters.
Adrianna Rodriguez can visit [email protected].