The governor of California, Gavin Newsom, declared a state of emergency this Wednesday after the serious case was confirmed in a patient admitted to a hospital in Louisiana. It is the first case with serious symptoms detected in the country. The federal Department of Agriculture estimates that in California, the most populous state in the country, there are about 645 head of cattle infected with the H5N1 virus, detected since last August. The presence of the bacteria can be traced back to March, when more than 800 animals in Texas and Kansas tested positive.
Newsom’s decree aims to anticipate the trip that the virus itself will make from the central valley region, where the infected cattle are, to highly populated areas in the south of the state, where the metropolitan areas of Los Angeles and San Diego are located. The measure, in the words of the Democratic politician, aims to anticipate the evolution of the situation.
“The risk to the public remains low, but we will continue to take all necessary measures to prevent the virus from spreading,” Newsom said. The governor emphasizes that, at the moment, there has been no person-to-person transmission in California and that almost all infected humans tested positive after being exposed to an infected animal.
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention, CDC, confirms that the risk of contagion to humans . The agency has so far detected 61 cases of affected people in 16 States. The vast majority are employed on farms, where H5N1 outbreaks have occurred. At least 37 patients were in contact with cattle herds and another 21 with chickens and birds. Eleven of these were presented in Washington State, in the west of the country. Only in two cases has the institution been unable to establish the source of infection. One of these is located in California and the other in Missouri.
Most of the human infections have occurred in California. As happened with the coronavirus, the State is usually the great gateway to the United States for respiratory diseases, many of them coming from Asia. 34 cases have been documented in the entity. The person whose origin of the infection could not be determined was a child from Alameda County, in the San Francisco Bay region. There is another minor under observation in that same area of the country who presented symptoms after drinking unpasteurized cow’s milk.
The case of Louisiana
There are few details about the patient admitted to the State of Louisiana. A CDC spokesperson assured CNN that this is a person over 65 years of age who was infected after coming into contact with sick or dead birds from a flock in their backyard. It is the first case in the country where the disease is not linked to an industrial poultry farm.
The institution that monitors the progress of the epidemics in the country has not wanted to provide information about the symptoms of this person, who lives in the southwest of the entity. Local authorities, however, have indicated that the patient has severe breathing difficulties and his condition is critical. The patient, they add, has preconditions that aggravate the disease.
The strain of the virus, D1.1, is the same one that has been found in several human infections in Canada and Washington State. This version is the same one that affects wild birds and flocks on poultry farms. The analyzes reveal that the cattle have been infected by another strain, B3.13. A mutation in the code of this virus would be enough to facilitate transmission between humans.
H5N1 has jumped from birds to humans at least 889 times in 21 years, and has caused the death of people in these decades (52%). The virus has wiped out hundreds of millions of wild and domestic birds. Its jump to mammals has been documented practically all over the world, from seals and sea lions in South America, through outbreaks in and to infected minks on farms in Galicia (Spain).
