But the Aug. 22 hospitalization of a Missouri adult raised questions among officials, who called for additional testing.
The result: it was bird flu, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and local health authorities in the central state reported in press releases.
Towards a new bird flu epidemic? A new species of mammal affected by the virus
“No ongoing transmission among close contacts or others has been identified,” the CDC said.
This 14th case of the year detected in the United States is the first in which the patient had no known contact with an animal.
An outbreak of bird flu was detected in the United States in the spring, with an unusual fact: this disease that mainly affected poultry and birds is now also affecting cows. A first infection in Texas, in the southern United States, was announced on April 1. This was the first known case worldwide of bird flu in a human via a cow.
Concerns grow over bird flu: ‘What’s happening in the US could happen here’
However, no bird flu infections have been reported in dairy cows in Missouri.
Experts are concerned about the growing number of mammals infected with the disease, even though human cases remain rare. They fear that high circulation could facilitate a mutation of the virus that would allow it to jump from one human to another.
The risk to the population “remains low,” the CDC stressed on Friday, however, and has not changed its recommendations regarding the epidemic at this stage.
