{"id":27298,"date":"2024-05-16T05:13:36","date_gmt":"2024-05-16T10:13:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=27298"},"modified":"2024-05-16T05:13:42","modified_gmt":"2024-05-16T10:13:42","slug":"bird-flu-virus-possibly-found-in-a-handful-of-wastewater-sites-cdc-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=27298","title":{"rendered":"Bird flu virus possibly found in a handful of wastewater sites, CDC says"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

There\u2019s no solid evidence that bird flu is spreading<\/a> among people, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Tuesday amid an outbreak of the virus in dairy cows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

New data<\/a> from 189 of the agency\u2019s wastewater sampling sites showed that as of May 4, an influenza A virus had been detected at higher-than-average levels in a handful of sites across the country, including in Alaska, California, Florida, Illinois and Kansas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bird flu currently circulating in cows<\/a>, called H5N1, is a type of influenza A.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just one site, in Saline County, Kansas, showed notably high levels of flu virus for this time of the year. Four herds in Kansas tested positive in April, the CDC said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s unclear whether the Kansas wastewater samples were limited to human waste or whether they included runoff water from farms. It\u2019s also unclear whether the high levels of virus in the wastewater indicate infections in humans, cows, birds or other animals. There hasn\u2019t been any unusual uptick in flu-like illnesses in recent weeks, the CDC said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019d really like to understand what might be driving that influenza A increase during what we consider the lower transmission season for influenza A,\u201d said Jonathan Yoder, deputy director of the CDC\u2019s division of infectious disease readiness and innovation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A representative from one of Saline County\u2019s major hospitals didn\u2019t respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Cameron Wolfe, an infectious disease expert and an associate professor of medicine at the Duke University School of Medicine in North Carolina, said the new CDC data \u201cis actually pretty reassuring.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re in the middle of May,\u201d he said, when \u201cthere isn\u2019t naturally a lot of flu.\u201d Wolfe said he isn\u2019t seeing any uptick in flu-like illnesses in his medical practice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As of Tuesday, 42 herds in nine states<\/a> \u2014 Kansas, Colorado, Idaho, Michigan, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, South Dakota and Texas \u2014 had been affected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The agency is monitoring 260 people<\/a> who have been exposed to infected dairy cows for flu-like symptoms. Thirty-three people have been tested for the virus. So far just one person \u2014 a dairy farm worker in Texas<\/a> \u2014 has been diagnosed with bird flu connected to the dairy cow outbreak. He developed a severe case of conjunctivitis, or pinkeye, and has recovered. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nbcnews<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s no solid evidence that bird flu is spreading among people, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Tuesday amid an outbreak of the virus in dairy cows. New data from 189 of the agency\u2019s wastewater sampling sites showed that as of May 4, an influenza A virus had been detected at higher-than-average levels in a handful […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":27299,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5784],"tags":[28426,3270,28428,28427],"class_list":["post-27298","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","tag-avian-influenza-viruses","tag-centers-for-disease-control-and-prevention","tag-dairy-cows","tag-wastewater-treatment-plants"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27298","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27298"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27298\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27300,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27298\/revisions\/27300"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/27299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}