Re: Washington state reports posible human bird flu patient

On 10/22/2024 3:33 PM, RonO wrote:

On 10/21/2024 2:55 PM, RonO wrote:

https://doh.wa.gov/newsroom/first-presumed-human-infections-avian- influenza-under-investigation-washington-state
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Washington has not admitted to having infected dairy herds, but Poultry flocks started to go down with H5N1, and in all the other states the poultry flocks have gotten infected from infected dairy herds.
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Four of the poultry workers are being tested because they started to exhibit symptoms after working with the infected birds.
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Ron Okimoto
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 https://www.nbc26.com/health/bird-flu/4-farm-workers-become-the-first- to-test-positive-for-bird-flu-in-washington-state
 This update indicates that 4 poultry workers exhibited symptoms and tested positive for H5N1.  Samples were sent to the CDC for verification.  This article also claims that other workers are also being tested so the number of infected is likely to change.  Officials are trying to contact other employees and contractors that worked at the farm so that they can be tested.
 Contact tracing should be done so that Washington can identify the dairy herd that likely infected the poultry farm due to shared workers.
 Ron Okimoto

https://washingtonstatestandard.com/2024/10/24/cdc-confirms-two-people-in-washington-infected-with-bird-flu/
The CDC has confirmed 2 of the 4 human cases submitted for verification with the other two still pending.  The total number of human cases submitted for verification from Washington has grown to 7.
The CDC is participating in testing more than 100 people in Washington (equal to more than 1/3 of the total testing that the CDC has acknowledged to date).  So it looks like the CDC is finally going to try to test enough people to determine what the infection rate might be. They should also start testing the dairies because the poultry farms have always gotten the virus from infected dairy herds in all the other states.
There are likely a lot of infected dairy workers in Washington that just are not being tested.
Ron Okimoto