Dairy worker with bird flu never developed respiratory symptoms, only pinkeye
Details of the bird flu infection in a Texas dairy worker were published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
The Texas dairy worker who caught bird flu from a sick cow in late March had none of the symptoms typically associated with influenza, including fever, coughing or sneezing. The only indication that he had been infected was a striking case of pinkeye.
Details of the man’s case — the only documented instance of bird flu spreading from a cow to a human — were published Friday in the New England Journal of Medicine, from health officials in Texas and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
A dairy worker in Texas developed pinkeye when he got bird flu. New England Journal of MedicineBird flu was first detected in several herds of dairy cows in late March. Around that same time, the man's right eye started to bother him and became red. He ended up with broken blood vessels in both eyes. Doctors said he had conjunctivitis, or pinkeye. The man had been in direct contact with both healthy and sick cows.
Swabs of the man’s eye and nose revealed he had the same strain of bird flu, H5N1, that was circulating in dairy cows.
The man was given the antiviral Tamiflu and was told to isolate as he recovered. No one he lives with became sick, though they, too, were given the antiviral to reduce that risk, the authors wrote.
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