2024-10-01 04:00:26
For epidemiologists, it’s the mystery of the summer. So what happened in Missouri, the American state where, on August 22, the first person with H5N1 avian influenza without proven contact with a sick animal in the United States was hospitalized? While an epizootic – that is to say an epidemic that affects animals – has been fighting for six months among dairy cattle on American farms, thirteen people have been infected by this H5N1 virus, including four agricultural workers in relation with dairy cows – a world. the first – and nine people work on the chicken farm. This new case raises the threat of possible human contamination, which would be the first step to a possible pandemic.
So the stakes are high, but the main elements that have been removed, for more than a month, from the epidemiologic research surrounding this issue are rare and isolated, said through a bulletin posted online every Friday on the Internet site from the US government agency Centers for Disease Control (CDC).
In the last three weeks, we successfully learned about this person’s illness, the fact that someone who shares their residence has had flu symptoms at the same time – but has not been tested; that a caregiver who took care of the first case is also sick, but it showed a negative PCR test for influenza, and finally that five other caregivers have developed cold respiratory symptoms without a test.
Incomplete data
These first reports from the field of what is one of the most closely followed epidemiological studies in the world are surprising. recent. “Is this a problem in the way US health authorities communicate or a real lack of response? »asks Thierry Lefrançois, a veterinarian at the Center for International Cooperation in Agricultural Research for Development. “The words used surprise me, as if no public health measures were taken”added the expert, who, although he belongs to the health risk monitoring and surveillance committee, was unable to get more information from the CDC.
In its bulletin of September 27The U.S. Department of Health said that blood samples were collected from five caregivers who did not undergo a PCR test in order to perform serologies, tests that detect the presence of viruses specific to influenza infection, which will play. the role of witnesses to past impact. Test results from a positive case have been pending for weeks. “This type of analysis takes a day at most, one wonders why it doesn’t progress faster”underlined Thierry Lefrançois, who explained that a negative test does not prove the absence of infection. Ideally, we should check the serology of all close contacts, including those who do not report any symptoms.
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