Authorities probe whether Marin County bird flu victim drank recalled raw milk

[ad_1] Public well being authorities are searching for to find out if a Marin County youngster stricken with hen flu may have doubtlessly contracted the sickness by ingesting contaminated uncooked milk that was topic to a recall.

The case was introduced on Friday, buried in a Dec. 6 Marin County well being e-newsletter, which offered few particulars concerning the case or the county and state’s investigation.

“Since saying a number of recollects of uncooked milk as a consequence of contamination with hen flu, state and native public well being consultants have acquired stories of sicknesses from 10 people who reported ingesting uncooked milk,” stated Grant Boyken, a spokesman for the state’s public well being division.

He stated that preliminary county and state public well being laboratory testing had not recognized any optimistic hen flu infections in these people, however that one Marin County youngster who examined optimistic for it had recovered.

H5N1 hen flu is assessed as an Influenza A virus — a bunch that features most human seasonal flu viruses as properly.

Extra testing is being carried out to evaluate whether or not the kid was contaminated with hen flu or seasonal flu.

Boyken stated the state, together with Marin County Well being and Human Providers and the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention, are working collaboratively on this investigation and “will present updates as they're out there.”

Lisa Santora, Marin County’s public well being officer, didn’t instantly reply to emails and calls from The Instances.

Within the final two weeks, state well being and agriculture officers suspended and recalled contaminated uncooked milk that had made its technique to grocery retailer cabinets all through the state.

It's unclear if folks can get hen flu by consuming the virus in milk. It's thought that acids within the abdomen denature the virus, stated Michael Imperiale, a microbiologist and immunologist on the College of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

Nonetheless, scores of barn cats, mice and different animals have been sickened — and have died — by ingesting contaminated uncooked milk. Imperiale and others notice that almost all mammals eat meals in a different way than folks, usually placing their mouths and noses into their meals, doubtlessly exposing themselves through respiratory routes, versus changing into contaminated via the intestine.

It's presumed most contaminated dairy staff have been uncovered to H5N1 through milk spray within the eye or within the nostril, not because of ingesting it.

Nonetheless, dealing with contaminated uncooked milk — wiping it on one’s arms after which nostril or eyes — may present a possible route for an infection.

Since H5N1 hen flu was first recognized in 1996 in birds in China’s Guangdong province, there have been few, if any, stories of individuals changing into sick with the illness because of consuming or ingesting it.

Regardless of the route of an infection, Boyken famous that “pasteurization kills micro organism and viruses, like influenza, in milk” and that selecting pasteurized milk and dairy merchandise “is the easiest way to maintain you and your loved ones protected.”

If confirmed, the Marin County case could be the 59th human case of H5N1 within the U.S. because the outbreak began in dairy cows in March.

It might even be the second case in California by which the supply of an infection has not been decided. A baby in Alameda County was identified with the illness final month. Genetic sequencing on that youngster’s virus signifies it was of dairy origin — associated to the pressure circulating in dairy cows, often called B3.13, versus the strains now shifting in migrating birds.

Each strains belong to the pressure of H5N1 often called 2.3.4.4b, which has contaminated roughly 50 species of mammals and killed thousands and thousands of untamed birds and business poultry.