'Concerning' is the word to use about bird flu, MUSC scientist says

With news that California has declared a state of emergency over bird flu in dairy cows plus research finding a single mutation could allow it to spread among people, concern about the virus is growing.

But Michael Sweat, Ph.D., a professor in MUSC’s College of Medicine, an adjunct professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Medicine and a former research scientist with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said the threat of bird flu to humans is very different from what we saw with COVID. “I don't think the risk to your average human is very high right now.”

 

That echoes the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s assessment. The agency says it’s “watching the situation carefully and working with states to monitor people with animal exposures” and “using its flu surveillance systems to monitor for H5 bird flu activity in people.”

“It's just too early to get too freaked out. Even if it did develop, I think we'd probably have some kind of rapid vaccination program,” Sweat said. “We have a vaccine. There's about a million doses available. They could ramp that up pretty quickly. And I think they could also utilize mRNA technology to really mass produce it. ‘Concerning’ is the word I’d use.”

Yesterday, the CDC announced it had confirmed the first severe case of bird flu in the U.S. The patient, in Louisiana, had been exposed to sick and dead birds. More than 60 people in the U.S. have been diagnosed with bird flu. 

Bird flu has been spreading among wild birds for more than two years, wiping out thousands of them. It spilled over into birds on farms, and a strain of the virus, called H5N1, turned up in cows. Then it spread to some humans who worked with them. But the CDC said there is no evidence of person-to-person spread. 

However, a study in the journal Science found that a single mutation could allow the virus to spread among people. “It’s hard to say what the probability is, but there is a real chance that it could develop into something that could be transmitted between humans, which is what you really wouldn't want,” Sweat said.

“But there's so many contingencies. Will it be that serious? How quickly could we get the vaccine out? How many people would take it?” 

His advice for now: follow the news, avoid raw milk and if you’re around birds, take precautions. “Pay attention to your flock. If you're seeing deaths, I'd be very cautious about how you handle the birds. And I'd probably contact the Clemson Extension service to ask for advice. Maybe wear gloves or a mask when you're around the birds. It probably wouldn't be a bad idea to do that anyway. Because it's really out there. But there should be signs. I mean, the birds would tend to die.”