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Ohio’s health authorities reported on Saturday that a local farmer has been released from the hospital after being diagnosed with bird flu, marking the fourth individual in the United States to be hospitalized with the H5N1 virus this year.
A spokesperson from the Ohio health department informed CBS News that the patient experienced respiratory issues and had previously required hospitalization.
The details surrounding Ohio’s case were initially withheld from the public but came to light following the announcement earlier this week that the individual had been in contact with infected poultry.
In a related development, Wyoming health officials disclosed that a third case of bird flu hospitalization in the U.S. had occurred, tied to exposure from a backyard flock. The patient is currently being treated in Colorado, although authorities have not released specific information regarding their condition.
Kim Deti, a spokesperson for Wyoming’s health department, emphasized the importance of patient privacy, stating, “We don’t typically provide information on patient condition due to privacy concerns.”
Deti noted that the hospitalization happened in the past two weeks, just a few days after the individual had contact with infected birds at their residence in Platte County, Wyoming.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has communicated that most human infections are a result of direct contact with sick birds or contaminated environments rather than human-to-human transmission.
However, investigations into certain human bird flu cases within the U.S. have failed to pinpoint how those individuals became infected.
The first reported hospitalization due to bird flu in the U.S. occurred in Missouri last year, but officials believe that case might have involved a patient who tested positive for the virus while hospitalized for other medical issues. Following that, a second case emerged in Louisiana, which resulted in the patient’s death.
Strain Identification in Recent Bird Flu Cases
It remains uncertain which specific strain of the H5N1 virus was responsible for the cases in Ohio and Wyoming. Identifying the strain is critical for experts and public health officials as they monitor the virus’s development.
Typically, federal health officials collect samples from infected individuals to evaluate for dangerous mutations that could increase the virus’s potential to spread amongst humans or lead to more severe health outcomes.
While the Ohio health department has not provided immediate details on this particular case’s strain, Wyoming’s chief veterinarian indicated that birds within the patient’s locality had recently tested positive for the B3.13 strain of the virus.
The CDC has not yet commented on whether a similar analysis was performed for the recent cases.
Historically, the majority of bird flu cases in the U.S. have been linked to workers in the dairy industry with exposure to infected cows associated with the B3.13 strain.
Research suggests that the B3.13 strain could present a lower risk for human health. This strain had been identified as the only bird flu variant spreading among dairy populations and affecting some nearby poultry farms until recent developments.
Recently, a new strain, D1.1, has emerged as a dominant variant spreading among migratory birds. This strain has contributed significantly to the transfer of the virus from wild birds to domestic poultry, which has in turn impacted egg prices across the nation.
D1.1 was also linked to the first recorded U.S. fatality from bird flu, which occurred in the Louisiana patient. Additionally, a child in Canada was hospitalized with D1.1 last year.
Recent findings confirm that D1.1 has transferred between birds to dairy herds on at least two occasions, raising concerns regarding the potential for further outbreaks within the agricultural sector.
Source
www.cbsnews.com