The worst of avian flu outbreak may be over in California, health officials say
The worst of the H5N1 avian flu outbreak — which began in 2024 and infected thousands of birds and dairy cows and dozens of people in the U.S. — may be over in California, state public health officer Dr. Erica Pan said Tuesday.
'In California, we feel we've gotten through the worst of this,' Pan said during a briefing for medical professionals held by the California Medical Association. 'In fact, we have demobilized the active public health coordination response and will continue to monitor.'
The Department of Public Health on Tuesday did not clarify what exactly the demobilization entails.
The virus appears to have slowed in California and nationally, though it's unclear if some of that may be related to less surveillance or a scaled-back federal workforce doing less testing and information-sharing with state and local health departments.
It may be that the state or nation is in a temporary lull that may pick up again in the fall and winter. This is because wild birds, the source of many infections, migrate north to Alaska and northern Canada to mate in the spring, and return back south in the fall. This may be why there was so much bird flu activity in the U.S. last fall, said UCSF infectious diseases specialist Dr. Peter Chin-Hong.
'We're kind of in a quiet period now,' Chin-Hong said. 'We aren't seeing reports of humans getting infected as much as we did in the earlier part of the year or late part of last year.'
As of late last year, California was the epicenter of the U.S. outbreak, with about 70% of cases in dairy cattle and the majority of cases in people. To date, 38 of the total 70 confirmed human cases in the U.S. have been found in California. Most have been among dairy and poultry workers who experienced mild symptoms, with the exception of one Louisiana resident who died, and two young children in the Bay Area who recovered after having mild symptoms and had unknown sources of exposure.
In California, the virus among dairy cattle peaked with 766 infected herds in 12 counties as of earlier this month.
While avian flu is very deadly in birds, cows usually get milder symptoms and are kept in quarantine for a period of time, tested and released once they test negative.
'The worst thing we can do is forget about it,' Chin-Hong said. 'We need to continue to be vigilant. Just because we're not seeing much now doesn't mean that for the future.'
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