logo
Bird flu case with "flu-like symptoms" hospitalized in Colorado

Bird flu case with "flu-like symptoms" hospitalized in Colorado

CBS News15-02-2025

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has confirmed a third U.S. bird flu hospitalization, Wyoming's health department said Friday, after a woman was admitted to a healthcare facility in neighboring Colorado.
The patient was experiencing "flu-like symptoms" and had "health conditions that can make people more vulnerable to illness," Wyoming's health department said. She was likely exposed to the H5N1 virus through direct contact to an infected poultry flock at her home.
"Our staff has followed up with other people who had contact with the flock and the patient, and will continue working with state and national experts to monitor the situation carefully for Wyoming," Dr. Alexia Harrist, Wyoming's state health officer, said in a statement.
It is unclear how many people in Colorado may have been exposed to the bird flu case while traveling in the state. A spokesperson for Colorado's health department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The patient was a resident of Wyoming's Platte County, the state's health department said. The Wyoming Livestock Board recently confirmed three backyard flocks infected by the virus, including in Platte County.
Those flocks were infected by B3.13, state veterinarian Hallie Hasel tells CBS News. It is unclear whether the human bird flu patient in Colorado was also infected by B3.13.
A spokesperson for the CDC, which usually studies and sequences worrying bird flu cases, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Health experts had thought that B3.13 strain might be less severe for people infected. That is different from the D1.1 strain that was behind a bird flu death in Louisiana last month and a hospitalization of a child in Canada last year.
The first U.S. bird flu hospitalization was reported in Missouri last year, sickened by B3.13, but health officials at the time said that person was likely hospitalized for other reasons and had incidentally tested positive for the virus.
The hospitalization comes just days after bird flu cases were also confirmed in people in Nevada and Ohio.
The Nevada patient was not hospitalized and only had mild symptoms, local health officials have said. Ohio's health department has not commented on the status of their bird flu case, despite repeated requests.
Health and agriculture departments also announced Friday another raw pet food recall linked to spread of the virus to cats in Oregon, and a second spillover of the D1.1 virus from birds into cows in Arizona.
Before Friday's case, there had been 68 human cases of bird flu confirmed by the CDC. Most have been linked to direct exposure to sick animals, though investigators have been unable to identify a source for three cases so far.
The uptick in bird flu cases comes amid an ongoing surge of seasonal influenza that is at record highs nationwide in emergency rooms and hospitals, above peaks seen during the 2009 swine flu pandemic.
Data from testing laboratories suggests it is the usual seasonal variants of the virus driving the surge, not human-to-human spread of a bird flu strain.
The CDC said Friday that those seasonal strains of the virus had driven influenza levels to some of the highest peaks in years, marking the first "high severity" season declared by the agency since 2017.

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

HHS justifies decision to stop recommending Covid shots during pregnancy with studies supporting the shots' safety
HHS justifies decision to stop recommending Covid shots during pregnancy with studies supporting the shots' safety

Politico

time43 minutes ago

  • Politico

HHS justifies decision to stop recommending Covid shots during pregnancy with studies supporting the shots' safety

The Department of Health and Human Services is circulating a document on Capitol Hill to explain its decision to remove the Covid-19 vaccine recommendation for pregnant women — citing studies that largely found the shot is safe. The document, which HHS sent to lawmakers days before Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced his plan to fire the panel that advises the CDC on immunizations, says that studies have shown that women who got the vaccine during pregnancy had higher rates of various complications. And it claims that 'a number of studies in pregnant women showed higher rates of fetal loss if vaccination was received before 20 weeks of pregnancy,' footnoting a research paper on vaccination during pregnancy. But Dr. Maria P. Velez of McGill University, the lead author of one of the studies, told POLITICO in an email that 'the results of our manuscript were misinterpreted.' The 2023 study shows a slightly higher rate of miscarriages among women who were immunized against Covid-19 during their pregnancies. But, Velez said, that after adjusting for 'variables that can confound a crude association,' like 'age, rurality, neighbourhood income quintile, immigration status, comorbidity' and other factors that could affect the outcome, Canadian researchers found 'no association between SARS-CoV-2 vaccination and an increased risk of miscarriage.' Raw numbers don't account for significant differences among the groups being compared — such as underlying conditions and when during pregnancy the people were vaccinated, said Katelyn Jetelina, an epidemiologist who's consulted for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Scientists, including the Canadian researchers, use statistical methods to adjust for those factors, she said, which is how they determined the vaccine wasn't associated with miscarriage. In a statement, HHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon pointed to the raw study data, which showed a slightly higher rate of miscarriage in the first half of pregnancy for women who were vaccinated against Covid compared with those who weren't. 'The underlying data speaks for itself — and it raises legitimate safety concerns,' he said. 'HHS will not ignore that evidence or downplay early pregnancy loss.' Nixon added that HHS and the CDC encourage people to talk to their providers 'about any personal medical decision.' Vaccine researchers and obstetricians criticized the decision to remove the recommendation for pregnant women, and researchers cited in the HHS document largely dismissed any connection between Covid vaccination and miscarriages. 'Given that COVID-19 infection during pregnancy is associated with serious maternal and neonatal morbidity, the current study can inform healthcare providers, pregnant women and those considering a pregnancy about the safety of SARS-CoV-2 vaccination in relation to miscarriage risk,' Velez and her co-authors wrote in the study. That research was based on health-system data from Ontario, Canada, and aligned with similar population studies in the U.S., Scotland and Norway. Similarly, HHS cited an April 2022 study in its document concerning mRNA vaccination in people undergoing in-vitro fertilization, which also found no adverse effects on conception rates or on early pregnancy outcomes. 'Administration of COVID-19 mRNA vaccines was not associated with an adverse effect on stimulation or early pregnancy outcomes after IVF,' the New York City-based researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and Mount Sinai West hospital wrote in the study. 'Our findings contribute to the growing body of evidence regarding the safety of COVID-19 vaccination in women who are trying to conceive.' The HHS document also includes an incorrect link for that study, instead leading to a different study — also cited in HHS' document — by Israeli researchers that found the vaccine 'appears to be safe during pregnancy,' with no increase in preterm labor or in newborns with low birth weight. That February 2022 study did note a possible increase in preterm birth rates for women vaccinated during the second trimester, and the authors suggested future investigations of outcomes based on the timing of immunization. HHS' assertion about significant risks to pregnant women 'contradicts the bulk of published studies,' said Dr. Paul Offit, an expert who has served as an outside adviser on vaccines to the FDA and the CDC. HHS deviated from past practice when it changed the Covid vaccine guidance last month, announcing the decision without the endorsement of an existing outside panel of expert advisers. Dr. Steven Fleischman, president of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, told POLITICO at the time that he was disappointed by HHS' decision, and pointed to data showing that newborns can benefit from maternal antibodies from the vaccine for protection from Covid. 'In fact, growing evidence shows just how much vaccination during pregnancy protects the infant after birth, with the vast majority of hospitalized infants less than 6 months of age — those who are not yet eligible for vaccination — born to unvaccinated mothers,' Fleischman said.

How having a sleepy teen could save your kid from a future heart attack
How having a sleepy teen could save your kid from a future heart attack

Yahoo

timean hour ago

  • Yahoo

How having a sleepy teen could save your kid from a future heart attack

For parents with a sleepy teenager, less variable sleep patterns could be a sign of a healthier future for their child. Teens who had better sleep habits at age 15 were found to have improved heart health seven years later, researchers at the American Academy of Sleep Medicine said on Monday. The healthy sleep habits include falling asleep and waking up earlier, spending a lower percentage of time in bed awake, and having lower variability in total sleep time and sleep onset. Average total sleep time did not predict future cardiovascular health. In teens, cardiac incidents are rare, but they can occur. Approximately 2,000 young and seemingly healthy people under the age of 25 die each year of sudden cardiac arrest, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Heart attacks in people under 40 have been increasing over the past decade, the Cleveland Clinic notes. 'Given the importance of sleep health for physical health and well-being in the short-term, we were not surprised to see a lasting association between adolescent sleep timing, sleep maintenance efficiency, and sleep variability with cardiovascular health in young adulthood,' Dr. Gina Marie Mathew, a senior post-doctoral associate in public health at Stony Brook Renaissance School of Medicine, explained in a statement. 'It was unexpected, however, that with and without adjustment for potentially confounding factors, total sleep time during adolescence was not a significant predictor of cardiovascular health during young adulthood,' she added. 'This single null finding, of course, does not indicate that total sleep time is unimportant. Rather, when paired with other studies, these findings underscore the complexity of sleep health and the need to consider multiple sleep dimensions as potential targets for promoting and maintaining cardiovascular health.' Mathew was the lead data analyst and author of the National Institutes of Health-backed research that was presented on Sunday at the SLEEP 2025 annual meeting. To reach these conclusions, the researchers analyzed data from Princeton and Columbia University's Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study: the longest-running and only contemporary U.S. birth cohort study of young adults based on a national sample. Their data included 307 adults, the majority of whom were girls. At age 15, participants wore a device on their wrist for a week to measure sleep variables. At age 22, their cardiovascular health was assessed using their diet, physical activity, exposure to nicotine, body mass index, and measurements of fats in the blood, blood sugar, and blood pressure. They were scored based on these factors using the American Heart Association's Life's Essential 8. Teens between the ages of 13 and 18 years old should sleep eight to 10 hours regularly to promote optimal health, the academy said. Getting the recommended number of hours is associated with improved attention, behavior, memory, mental and physical health, and other positive outcomes. However, Mathew pointed out that the results highlight the need for a more comprehensive approach to address the relationship between adolescent sleep health and cardiovascular health. 'Future research and recommendations should emphasize the importance of multiple dimensions of sleep health, including earlier sleep timing, higher sleep maintenance efficiency, and lower sleep variability as protective factors for long-term heart health,' she said.

RFK Jr. removes CDC vaccine panel members: What to know
RFK Jr. removes CDC vaccine panel members: What to know

Yahoo

timean hour ago

  • Yahoo

RFK Jr. removes CDC vaccine panel members: What to know

US Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. has removed all 17 members of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) vaccine advisory panel and aims to replace it with new members "currently under consideration." Yahoo Finance senior health reporter Anjalee Khemlani covers what this means for vaccine distribution in the US and the reaction from vaccine manufacturers. To watch more expert insights and analysis on the latest market action, check out more Morning Brief here.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into the world of global news and events? Download our app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store