‘No evidence’ of human-to-human transmission of bird flu (H5N1) has been identified, says a new study funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and published Tuesday at the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM).
The study concluded:
In the cases identified to date, A(H5N1) viruses generally caused mild illness, mostly conjunctivitis, of short duration, predominantly in U.S. adults exposed to infected animals; most patients received prompt antiviral treatment. No evidence of human-to-human A(H5N1) transmission was identified. PPE use among occupationally exposed persons was suboptimal, which suggests that additional strategies are needed to reduce exposure risk. (Funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.)
“All the case patients who were exposed to infected poultry were involved in depopulation activities,” CDC also reports.
Harvey Risch, M.D., professor emeritus of epidemiology at the Yale School of Public Health and Yale School of Medicine, told Lumen-News the CDC study “shows that the human bird flu cases that have occurred to date are essentially in people with workplace exposures to infected animals.”
Hellbound and Down 