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Tag: influenza

Topic: avian fluView all posts for the topic: avian flu

There’s never a good time to drink raw milk. But now’s a really bad time as bird flu infects cows

Published April 29, 2024

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Published by: STAT
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By Helen Branswell

Scientists who know about the types of pathogens — E. coli and Salmonella among them — that can be transmitted in raw milk generally think drinking unpasteurized milk is a bad idea. But right now, they believe, the danger associated with raw milk may have gone to a whole new level.

“If I were in charge, for the moment I would forbid the selling of raw milk,” said Thijs Kuiken, a pathologist in the department of viroscience at Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, who has done research on H5N1 and the damage it inflicts for about two decades.

Continue readingThere’s never a good time to drink raw milk. But now’s a really bad time as bird flu infects cows
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Topic: avian fluView all posts for the topic: avian flu

Cattle testing for H5N1 bird flu will be more limited than USDA initially announced

Published April 26, 2024

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Published by: STAT
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By Megan Molteni

New federal rules aimed at limiting the spread of the H5N1 bird flu virus among dairy cattle go into effect Monday, but detailed guidance documents released Friday by the U.S. Department of Agriculture reveal its mandatory testing order is less stringent than initially described.

While that is easing concerns from farmers and veterinarians about the economic and logistical burden of testing, it leaves questions about how effective the testing program will be at containing additional outbreaks.

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Topic: avian fluView all posts for the topic: avian flu

Canadian officials considering ‘pre-pandemic’ vaccines as bird flu spreads through U.S. livestock

Published April 26, 2024

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Published by: Ottawa Citizen
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By Elizabeth Payne

As H5N1 bird flu spreads rapidly through livestock and other animals across the U.S., Canadian officials are exploring stockpiling “pre-pandemic” H5N1 vaccines as a precaution.

The highly pathogenic avian influenza (H5N1) has not been detected in any Canadian livestock and the risk of transmission for the general public is considered low, but the recent rapid spread of the virus through livestock and elsewhere in the U.S. has public health officials around the world on high alert.

Health experts are urging people not to drink raw, unpasteurized, milk and to make sure meat is thoroughly cooked, but they say the real potential risk from bird flu is not from food, but from the possibility that changes to the virus enable it to jump from animals to humans. That could create a potential influenza pandemic because human immunity to the virus is expected to be minimal.

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Topic: avian fluView all posts for the topic: avian flu

As bird flu spreads in cows, fractured U.S. response has echoes of early covid

Published April 25, 2024

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Published by: The Washington Post
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By Lena H. Sun, Rachel Roubein

Federal agencies with competing interests are slowing the country’s ability to track and control an outbreak of highly virulent bird flu that for the first time is infecting cows in the United States, according to government officials and health and industry experts.

The response has echoes of the early days of 2020, when the coronavirus began its deadly march around the world. Today, some officials and experts express frustration that more livestock herds aren’t being tested for avian flu, and that when tests and epidemiological studies are conducted, results aren’t shared fast enough or with enough detail. They fear that the delays could allow the pathogen to move unchecked — and potentially acquire the genetic machinery needed to spread swiftly among people. One dairy worker in Texas has already fallen ill amid the outbreak, the second U.S. case ever of this type of bird flu.

Officials and experts said the lack of clear and timely updates by some federal agencies responding to the outbreak recall similar communication missteps at the start of the coronavirus pandemic. They point, in particular, to a failure to provide more details publicly about how the H5N1 virus is spreading in cows and about the safety of the milk supply.

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Topic: avian fluView all posts for the topic: avian flu

USDA Now Requiring Mandatory Testing and Reporting of HPAI in Dairy Cattle as New Data Suggests Virus Outbreak is More Widespread

Published April 24, 2024

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Published by: AgWeb
By Tyne Morgan

USDA is now ordering all dairy cattle must be tested prior to moving the animals across state lines as a way to help stop the spread of HPAI H5N1 impacting dairy herds across the country. This comes after a lab at Ohio State University detected genetic material of the virus in 38% of retail milk samples they’ve tested, data that also suggests the current outbreak is being underreported.

In a new Federal Order announced on Tuesday, USDA says in an effort to protect the U.S. livestock industry from the threat posed by highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza, there are a number of actions being taken with federal partners to limit the spread.

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Topic: avian fluView all posts for the topic: avian flu

Bird flu virus found in grocery milk as officials say supply still safe

Published April 23, 2024

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Published by: The Washington Post
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By Lena H. Sun, Rachel Roubein, Dan Diamond

Viral fragments of bird flu have been identified in samples of milk taken from grocery store shelves in the United States, a finding that does not necessarily suggest a threat to human health but indicates the avian flu virus is more widespread among dairy herds than previously thought, according to two public health officials and a public health expert who was briefed on the issue.

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Topic: avian fluView all posts for the topic: avian flu

Scientists say USDA is sharing too little data too slowly on H5N1 flu

Published April 23, 2024

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Published by: CNN
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By Brenda Goodman

When the US Department of Agriculture announced late Sunday that it had publicly posted new data from its investigation into a bird flu outbreak in cattle, scientists eagerly searched a well-known platform used globally to share the genetic sequences of viruses.

The sequences weren’t there. As of Tuesday morning, they still aren’t.

Researchers looking to track the evolution and spread of H5N1 say the information that was posted — raw data on a US server — isn’t very useful and is anything but transparent. They also say the government’s release of information in the outbreak, which was confirmed in cattle almost a month ago, has been painfully slow.

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Topic: New BrunswickView all posts for the topic: New Brunswick

COVID-19 kills 2 more in N.B., flu sends child under 4 and 2 youths to hospital

Published April 23, 2024

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Published by: CBC News
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By Bobbi-Jean MacKinnon

COVID-19 has killed two more New Brunswickers, while a child under four and two youths aged five to 19 are among those hospitalized by the flu, Tuesday’s Respiratory Watch report shows.

“COVID-19 activity remains moderate; some indicators (number of cases, percent positivity, and number of deaths) remained stable during the current reporting period,” April 7 to April 13, the report says.

Influenza activity decreased slightly, it says.

The two people who died from COVID during the reporting week were both aged 65 or older.

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Topic: ManitobaView all posts for the topic: Manitoba

La distribution des vaccins contre la COVID-19 sera interrompue cet été

Published April 16, 2024

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Published by: Radio-Canada
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Manitoba indicated that the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines will be discontinued as of May 1. The vaccination campaign will resume in autumn 2024.

A provincial spokesperson says the province has taken this approach based on scientific evidence and advice from the National Advisory Committee on Immunization.

Based on seasonal trends in respiratory viruses in Manitoba, a dose administered in the fall is more likely to provide protection when respiratory virus circulation levels are higher, he said.

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Topic: New BrunswickView all posts for the topic: New Brunswick

COVID-19 kills New Brunswicker aged 45-64, 2 youth among those hospitalized by flu

Published April 16, 2024

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Published by: CBC News
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By Bobbi-Jean MacKinnon

A New Brunswicker aged 45 to 64 has died from COVID-19, while the flu sent eight people to the hospital, including two youth aged five to 19, updated data from the province Tuesday shows.

“COVID-19 activity remains moderate,” according to the Respiratory Watch report. “Some indicators (number of cases, percent positivity, and hospitalizations) decreased slightly during the current reporting period, between March 31 and April 6.

Influenza activity remained “relatively stable,” it says.

Continue readingCOVID-19 kills New Brunswicker aged 45-64, 2 youth among those hospitalized by flu
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Topic: avian fluView all posts for the topic: avian flu

Bird flu detected in cows in three more Michigan counties, agriculture department says

Published April 12, 2024

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Published by: Michigan Public
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By Zena Issa

The recent detection of highly pathogenic avian influenza, commonly known as bird flu, has been confirmed in three additional dairy herds in Michigan counties: Ionia, Isabella, and Ottawa, the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development said Friday. That brought the total to four affected counties, with Montcalm County the first to detect the disease in a dairy herd about two weeks earlier.

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Topic: Ottawa-GatineauView all posts for the topic: Ottawa-Gatineau

Hospitalizations nudge upward in otherwise stable respiratory checkup

Published April 11, 2024

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Published by: CBC News
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By Andrew Foote

Ottawa is back in high-risk respiratory territory because of an increase in new hospitalizations.

COVID-19 and RSV trends are generally seen as low in the weekly respiratory update from Ottawa Public Health (OPH).

Flu wastewater readings and hospitalizations remain very high as this flu season stretches into spring.

OPH said there were 17 new COVID, flu and RSV hospitalizations the week starting March 24, and 27 the week starting March 31.

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Topic: New BrunswickView all posts for the topic: New Brunswick

3 COVID deaths recorded as N.B. cases increase slightly, child under 4 dies from flu

Published April 3, 2024

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Published by: CBC News
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By Hadeel Ibrahim

Three more New Brunswickers have died from COVID-19, and one child died of influenza, according to data from the province updated Wednesday.

Hospitalizations for COVID-19 have slightly increased, while influenza hospitalizations remained steady in the period of March 17 to March 23, according to the provincial Respiratory Watch report.

“COVID-19 activity remains moderate; some indicators (number of cases, percent positivity, and hospitalizations) increased slightly,” the report says.

The person who died of influenza was four years old or younger.

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Topic: avian fluView all posts for the topic: avian flu

Tests confirm avian flu on New Mexico dairy farm; probe finds cats positive

Published April 2, 2024

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Published by: CIDRAP
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By Lisa Schnirring

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service yesterday announced that tests have now confirmed highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in a New Mexico dairy herd and that the virus has now been confirmed in five more Texas dairy herds.

Part of quickly evolving developments, the announcement came shortly after Texas health officials and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced the first human case, which involves a person from Texas who had contact with dairy cattle, highlighting the risk to farm workers.

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Topic: avian fluView all posts for the topic: avian flu

Avian flu infects person exposed to sick cows in Texas

Published April 1, 2024

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Published by: CIDRAP
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By Lisa Schnirring

Federal and state health officials today reported that a person connected to a dairy farm in Texas has tested positive for H5N1 avian flu, the first known case linked to sick dairy cows and the nation’s second since the virus began circulating in wild bird and poultry in 2022.

Today’s case announcement underscores new interim guidance that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released over the weekend on preventing, detecting, and responding to avian flu infections in humans, which are very rare and mainly pose a threat to people who are exposed to sick animals or contaminated environments.

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Topic: British ColumbiaView all posts for the topic: British Columbia

Number hospitalized with COVID-19 in B.C. hits new low for 2024 in latest update

Published March 28, 2024

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Published by: CTV News
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By Ian Holliday

The number of patients with COVID-19 in B.C. hospitals declined to its lowest level of 2024 in the latest data update from the B.C. Centre for Disease Control.

There were 133 test-positive patients in provincial hospitals as of Thursday, according to the BCCDC. The last published update to show a total lower than that was in August of last year, when the BCCDC reported just 76 patients hospitalized.

This week’s hospitalized population is less than half of what it was around this time last year. The final published update of March 2023 showed 294 patients in B.C. hospitals.

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Topic: Newfoundland and LabradorView all posts for the topic: Newfoundland and Labrador

Mask mandate to be lifted at N.L. hospitals Monday

Published March 28, 2024

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Published by: CBC News
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If you’re headed to the hospital on Monday, you won’t need to wear a mask as Newfoundland and Labrador Health Services has updated its masking guidelines.

Masking had been required for patients and visitors at health-care facilities since February, but will no longer be required as of Monday, according to NL Health Services.

People who are seeking care and showing symptoms of viruses like COVID-19 will still be required to wear a mask. They can wear their own medical mask to the facility — but not a cloth mask — or get one on-site.

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Topic: New BrunswickView all posts for the topic: New Brunswick

3 more COVID deaths in New Brunswick, 4 youth among flu hospitalizations

Published March 26, 2024

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Published by: CBC News
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By Bobbi-Jean MacKinnon

Three more New Brunswickers have died from COVID-19, while no new influenza deaths have been reported, and hospitalizations for both viruses have decreased, updated data from the province Tuesday shows.

A child under four, and three youth aged five to 19 are among those hospitalized by the flu between March 10 and March 16, according to the Respiratory Watch report.

“COVID-19 activity remains moderate; some indicators (number of cases, percent positivity, and hospitalizations) decreased slightly during the current reporting period,” it says.

Influenza activity “slightly decreased” during the reporting week.

Of the three people who died, one was aged 45 to 64 and the other two were aged 65 or older.

Continue reading3 more COVID deaths in New Brunswick, 4 youth among flu hospitalizations
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