DES MOINES, Iowa >> A Colorado prisoner became the first person in the United States to test positive for bird flu in a recent outbreak that killed millions of chickens and turkeys, but federal officials say they still see little threat to the general public. .
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday night that the infected man was on a pre-release program to help remove chickens from an infected farm. The man, under the age of 40, reported fatigue for several days but has recovered, state health officials and the CDC said in a statement.
The man was isolated and treated with antiviral drugs. Other people involved in the operation to kill birds in Colorado have tested negative, but they are being retested with great care.
The man was part of a team of near-release prisoners who worked on the farm before a bird flu case was confirmed there on April 19, said Lisa Wiley, a spokeswoman for the Colorado Corrections Division. When bird flu was discovered on a farm in Montrose County, inmates were asked to help kill and remove the birds.
Farmers said a fire broke out on a farm in Montrose County with 58,000 broiler chickens.
Despite the infection, the CDC believes the threat to the general public is low, as the spread of the virus among humans requires close contact with an infected bird.
Signals that could increase the risk to public health may include multiple reports of viral infections in humans from bird exposure or identification of spread from one person to another. The CDC is also monitoring genetic changes in the H5N1 bird flu virus, which is currently circulating. Any genetic changes may indicate that the virus is adapting to spread more easily from birds to humans or other mammals.
Many different bird flu viruses have infected people around the world since at least the 1990s, but health officials still say the infection is uncommon in humans.
In 2002, H7N2 caused thorns and mild respiratory symptoms in humans in the United Kingdom and the United States. Since 2002, four infections have been identified in the United States; two were transmitted from cats to humans in 2016.
More than 1,500 people in China were infected with the H7N9 strain, mainly in outbreaks between 2013 and 2017. This version caused serious infections among humans and 40% of those killed died.
A variant of H5N1 has also been circulating since 1997, infecting more than 880 people, and had a 50% mortality rate.
The current version of H5N1 has been distributed to backyard chicken and turkey flocks and outlets in the United States since late February. Viruses have been found in American commercial and poultry in 29 states and in wild birds in 34 states. More than 35 million chickens and turkeys have been killed and removed to prevent the spread, the US Department of Agriculture said.
The CDC said it had tracked the health of more than 2,500 people who had been exposed to H5N1-infected birds, but that the prisoner’s illness was the only confirmed case to date.
The agency said the man may have had the virus only in his nose and his body not infected. Colorado public health officials say repeated tests on the man were negative for the flu. A positive nasal swab test meets the agency’s criteria to consider it an infection.
“The right response to public health at this point is to accept that it is an infection and to take action to limit and treat it,” the CDC said in a statement.
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