Some may have bird flu infection without any symptoms, CDC reports

Dairy workers who’ve been exposed to bird flu should be tested even if they don’t have symptoms and should be offered Tamiflu to cut risk, the CDC said Thursday.

Dairy workers who’ve been exposed to bird flu should be tested for the virus even if they don’t have symptoms and be offered Tamiflu to cut their risk of getting sick, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday.

The recommendation coincides with a new report finding asymptomatic bird flu infection in some workers. Those cases were discovered using blood, or serology, testing and seem to have been transmitted from sick animals, not people.

“There is nothing that we’ve seen in the new serology data that gives us any concern about person-to-person transmission,” Dr. Nirav Shah, the CDC’s principal deputy director, said during a media briefing.

To date, 46 people have been diagnosed with bird flu, also known as H5N1, in the United States this year. All but one of those patients had been exposed to sick cattle or poultry on farms.

Most cases have been reported in California (21), Washington (11) and Colorado (10).

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/bird-flu-no-symptoms-test-cdc-dairy-rcna179098

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