Public health officials are investigating whether a Marin County child with bird flu may have been infected by drinking infected raw milk that has been recalled.
The incident was announced Friday and buried in the Dec. 6 Marin County Health Newsletter, which provided few details about the incident or the county and state investigations.
“Since announcing multiple recalls of raw milk due to contamination with avian influenza, state and local public health experts have confirmed that 10 people who reported drinking raw milk have… “We have received reports of illness,” he said.
He said initial county and state public health lab testing did not confirm any positive results for avian influenza infection in these individuals, but one Marin County child who tested positive has recovered. said.
H5N1 avian influenza is classified as an influenza A virus. This group also includes most human seasonal influenza viruses.
Additional tests are being conducted to assess whether the child had been infected with avian influenza or seasonal influenza.
Boyken said the state, Marin County Health and Human Services and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are working together on the investigation and “will provide updated information as it becomes available.”
Marin County Public Health Officer Lisa Santora did not immediately respond to an email or phone call from the Times.
Over the past two weeks, state health and agriculture officials have halted sales and recalled infected raw milk from grocery store shelves across the state.
It is unknown whether you can get avian influenza by ingesting the virus in milk. Michael Imperiale, a microbiologist and immunologist at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, said acid in the stomach is thought to denature the virus.
However, numerous barn cats, rats, and other animals have become ill and died from drinking infected raw milk. Imperiale et al. suggest that most mammals consume food differently than humans, often putting their mouths and noses into food, potentially exposing themselves through the respiratory tract rather than infecting the intestines. It is pointed out that there is.
It is estimated that most infected dairy workers were exposed to H5N1 through milk spray that got into their eyes or nose, rather than as a result of drinking milk.
However, handling infected raw milk (wiping it with your hands and then wiping your nose and eyes) can be a potential route of infection.
Since H5N1 avian influenza was first identified in birds in China’s Guangdong province in 1996, there have been few, if any, reports of people contracting the disease as a result of eating or drinking it.
Regardless of the route of infection, “pasteurization kills bacteria and viruses, such as influenza, in milk,” Boyken said, adding that choosing pasteurized milk and dairy products “keeps you and your family safe.” “This is the best way to protect.”
If confirmed, the Marin County case would be the 59th confirmed case of H5N1 in the United States since the outbreak began in dairy cows in March.
This is the second case in California where the source of infection has not been identified. Last month, a child in Alameda County was diagnosed with the disease. Genetic sequencing of the child’s virus showed that it was similar to the strain circulating in dairy cattle, known as B3.13, as opposed to the strain currently circulating in migratory birds.
Both strains belong to the H5N1 strain known as 2.3.4.4b, which has infected about 50 species of mammals and killed millions of wild birds and poultry.
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