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Cattle ranch in the southwest of the USA (symbolic image)

Photo: Rodrigo Abd / AP

For the second time in the USA, a person has been confirmed to have contracted the H5N1 bird flu. The US health authority CDC announced on Monday that the affected person became infected through contact with dairy cows.

The patient in Texas only suffered from red eyes, which could be related to conjunctivitis. He is being treated with the antiviral drug used against this flu and is already on the mend. Last week it was reported that the virus had been found in cows in Texas, among other places.

The CDC also stated that the threat to the US population from bird flu remains low and that the infection does not affect the agency's risk assessment. According to the World Health Organization, only 248 people worldwide were infected with the virus between 2003 and 2023. The disease ended fatally in 139 of them. In severe cases, pneumonia can be a result of the H5N1 infection, among other things.

The bird flu virus H5N1 was recently found not only in birds, but also in mammals such as foxes, otters and bears. These findings could mean that humans could also be at risk. The first infection of a person in the USA occurred in the state of Colorado in 2022; the patient affected at the time was infected through contact with poultry.

Concern for Antarctic bird life

It was recently announced that the virus was also detected on the Antarctic mainland. The pathogen was identified in dead skuas that were found near the Antarctic station Primavera at the beginning of the year. This was announced by the Argentine Antarctic Institute and the Supreme Council for Scientific Studies in Spain at the end of February 2024.

Hundreds of thousands of penguins live in densely packed colonies on the Antarctic continent. The deadly virus could now easily spread there. Bird species that have never been in contact with bird flu are considered particularly at risk.

Until now, Antarctica was considered one of the last regions, along with Australia and Oceania, to be spared from the current bird flu outbreak.

jok/AFP