H5N1 Bird Flu H5N1 bird flu update: Stories include the risk of avian flu transmission to humans, what would be needed for wide availability of a H5N1 vaccine, the perils of bird flu virus in raw milk, and scientific concerns about a potential pandemic.

https://www.statnews.com/topic/h5n1-bird-flu/?utm_campaign=morning_rounds&utm_medium=email&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_8CjHP71TtyoVG4QNy8FLeLgRB_sXRta5_hjff7q6-5gC9yLK0Az3r0RbR7oONON0XjpxQ87lSOjUhyljzajWS1lhXRA&_hsmi=319570921&utm_content=319570921&utm_source=hs_email CDC ups bird flu alarm — but only slightly From STAT’s Helen Branswell: The CDC issued a new risk assessment of the H5N1 bird flu virus circulating in dairy cows Friday, increasing slightly its estimate of the chance the virus poses of triggering a pandemic. But the new assessment, developed using the agency’s influenza risk assessment tool or IRAT, still gauges the risk in the lower half of the moderate rate. Previous assessments of some swine influenza viruses and of the H7N9 bird flu virus have scored higher using the IRAT risk assessment. Vivien Dugan, director of the CDC’s influenza division, told STAT this tool was designed to help the federal government prioritize its pandemic preparedness efforts, and isn’t meant to forecast whether a given flu virus will go on to cause a pandemic. The virus analyzed in the new assessment was taken from the first human H5N1 case in the U.S. this year, a farmworker in Texas whose infection was reported at the beginning of April. The previous H5N1 risk assessment was based on a 2023 outbreak of H5N1 in mink in Spain. Read more from Helen here, and keep up with STAT’s H5N1 coverage here. https://www.statnews.com/2024/08/09/bird-flu-cdc-risk-assessment/?utm_campaign=morning_rounds&utm_medium=email&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-88y2iAsFoth6Zq957H_AFffaZsv5a0tDN4MPiHd8F-HbR32PY-6T-HvoR_9tFlHSk-RgxH2hPmRLurC_sbwBDusmhTeg&_hsmi=319570921&utm_content=319570921&utm_source=hs_email