Los Angeles, Dec 18 (EFE).- California declared a state of emergency on Wednesday as the H5N1 bird flu virus has been spreading through the state’s dairy farms, with several cases reported in workers, as well as a child.
In a statement, Governor Gavin Newsom said the decree comes after bird flu cases were detected in dairy cows on farms in Southern California, signaling the need to “ensure government agencies have the resources and flexibility they need to respond quickly to this outbreak.”
The emergency declaration was issued on the same day that the federal government’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported the country’s first severe illness linked to H5N1 in a person hospitalized in Louisiana.
California has been grappling with the virus and had to suspend distribution of raw milk from its largest retailer in late November after H5N1 was detected in several retail samples.
On Nov. 22, the CDC reported a case in a child in California, marking the first reported infection of a minor in the country.
The child, whose age was not reported, has since recovered from the illness. All of the child’s household reported symptoms, but only the child tested positive, and health officials have not yet been able to determine how the minor was infected.
The California decree said that between Aug. 30 and early this month, 641 dairy farms have returned positive tests across nine counties
At least 61 people in the US have contracted the virus since April, the vast majority of them livestock or poultry farm workers, according to CDC data.
More than half of the cases have been recorded in California (34), and all but one contracted the virus through infected dairy products, according to the California Department of Public Health.
In that sense, Newsom stressed that “while the risk to the public remains low, we will continue to take all necessary steps to prevent the spread of this virus.”
So far, no human-to-human transmission has been documented. EFE
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