US ‘Underprepared’ for Bird Flu Outbreak, Epidemiologists Warn

The U.S. is woefully “underprepared” for a bird flu outbreak, experts have warned. This comes after a second human bird flu case was announced by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in connection with a multistate outbreak in dairy cows.

Highly pathogenic avian influenza is an infectious viral illness that spreads primarily among wild and domestic birds. But the virus that causes bird flu can sometimes jump into animals, including dairy cows and, in some cases, humans.

Read more: What Is a Health Savings Account?

On Tuesday, the CDC put out new recommendations to state and local health officials for them to continue operating influenza surveillance systems at enhanced levels over the summer to identify further human infections with the H5N1 bird flu virus.

However, epidemiologist and public health policy expert Brian Castrucci told Newsweek that the U.S. is not prepared for a potential outbreak.

“The U.S. is underprepared for bird flu because we have not learned our lessons from COVID,” said Castrucci, who is the president and CEO of a public health nonprofit, the de Beaumont Foundation. “Reporting is the key to tracking an emerging infection, but there are barriers to reporting.”

Read more: Compare Top Health Savings Accounts

Jessica Malaty Rivera, an epidemiologist and science communications adviser for the deBeaumont Foundation, said that the major barrier here is a lack of data.

“Evidence suggests the outbreaks first emerged late last year, which means we’re likely not seeing the full scale of the situation,” she told Newsweek. “We also are dealing with a trust issue among farmers who are reluctant to come forward if they are sick and participate in testing for reasons related to documentation insecurity, language barriers and a lack of sick leave.”

Neglecting this human component can lead to underreporting of human cases, with knock-on effects on surveillance attempts.

“Pandemic preparedness and response is all too often boiled down to bugs and bacteria, but the human side of this is just as critical,” Castrucci said. “Federal policy should be in place to protect those who need to act to protect us all.

“Federal legislation enacting emergency paid sick leave, immigration amnesty and income assurance to facilitate reporting among those most at risk [is] as critical as testing and surveillance but [continues] to be de-prioritized in our nation’s pandemic preparedness,” he said.

Adding to our lack of preparedness is the continued understaffing of public health workers in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Between 2017 and 2021, half of the governmental public health workforce left their jobs,” Castrucci said. “Employees are still recovering from stress and burnout from COVID. We need at least 80,000 more public health staff throughout our nation, and that’s just to deliver basic public health services. We would need significantly more should we face another nationwide pandemic.”

With that in mind, how much of a threat does bird flu pose to the American public?

“Currently, the risk to the general public remains low,” Rivera said. “The two human cases involved people who had close contact with an infected animal. So far, human-to-human transmission has not been reported, which explains the low number of infections in humans. The USDA has also shared that our food supplies, specifically pasteurized commercial milk, poultry and meat, are safe for consumption.”

She continued: “People who are most at risk of bird flu are those who have work-related or recreational exposure to infected animals, specifically dairy cows. In this case, that includes dairy farmers, farmworkers and veterinarians responding to the ongoing outbreaks.”

As a result, the best way to protect yourself from bird flu is to avoid contact with wild birds, cows and other animals that may have been exposed to or infected with the virus. “Additionally, people should avoid drinking raw or unpasteurized milk or consuming animal products from animals with suspected or confirmed bird flu infection,” Rivera said.

The majority of the bird flu cases detected in humans so far have been mild. However, if the past five years have taught us anything, these viruses can evolve fast.

“Influenza has a complicated replication cycle within multiple species,” Carl Abraham, an assistant professor of medicine at the New York Institute of Technology, previously told Newsweek. “This frequently causes the genes of different strains within a single host to mix, commonly referred to as recombination events.”

He went on: “Most recombination events result in influenza viruses that are not able to replicate or replicate less efficiently. However, rare recombination events may increase illness severity, increase transmission or even, as we are seeing with cattle this year, infection of new species. It is possible for a recombination event to give avian influenza the ability to infect humans.

“If the same virus caused human-to-human transmission, it could have pandemic potential. Again, this would be a rare event, but it is possible,” Abraham said.

Castrucci said policy changes are needed, not just for bird flu but for pandemic preparedness more generally.

“Pandemic threats are coming quicker,” he said. “Following COVID, we’ve already seen Mpox and now H5N1,” he said. “We need to invest in policy, procedures and practices to ensure the country’s continued safety, security and economic prosperity.”

Is there a health problem that’s worrying you? Let us know via [email protected]. We can ask experts for advice, and your story could be featured in Newsweek.