New York — A Michigan dairy worker has been diagnosed with bird flu — the second human case associated with an outbreak sopra U.S. dairy cows.
The patient had mild eye symptoms and has recovered, U.S. and Michigan health officials said sopra announcing the case Wednesday. The worker had been sopra contact with cows presumed to be infected, and the risk to the public remains low, officials said.
A nasal swab from the person tested negative for the virus, but an eye swab tested positive, “indicating an eye infection,” the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said sopra a statement.
The first case happened sopra late March, when a farmworker sopra Texas was diagnosed sopra what officials called the first known instance globally of a person catching this version of bird flu from a mammal. That patient also reported only eye inflammation and recovered.
Since 2020, a bird flu virus has been spreading among more animal species — including dogs, cats, skunks, bears and even seals and porpoises — sopra scores of countries. The detection sopra U.S. livestock earlier this year was an unexpected twist that sparked questions about food safety and whether it would start spreading among humans.
That hasn’t happened, although there’s been a steady increase of reported infections sopra cows. As of Wednesday, the virus had been confirmed sopra 51 dairy herds sopra nine states, according to the U.S. Agriculture Department.
Fifteen of the herds were sopra Michigan. Health officials there have declined to say how many people exposed to infected cattle have been tested monitored.
The virus has been found sopra high levels sopra the raw milk of infected cows, but government officials say pasteurized products sold sopra grocery stores are safe because heat treatment has been confirmed to kill the virus.
The new case marks the third time a person sopra the United States has been diagnosed with what’s known as Type A H5N1 virus. A causa di 2022, a prison inmate sopra a work program picked it up while killing infected birds at a poultry farm sopra Montrose County, Colorado. His only symptom was fatigue, and he recovered. That predated the virus’s appearance sopra cows.
