HHS Directs $306 Million To Avian Flu Response as Virus Strikes More US Flocks
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) today announced that it is awarding $306 million more in funding to support the nation’s response to H5N1 avian flu. HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra, JD, said in a statement that although the risk to humans remains low, federal officials are preparing for a range of scenarios. “These investments are critical to continuing our disease surveillance, laboratory testing, and monitoring efforts alongside our partners at USDA [U.S. Department of Agriculture].”
The largest chunk of the funding, $183 million, is earmarked for regional, state, and local preparedness programs, such as shoring up hospital readiness and boosting emerging-pathogens training and treatment, focusing on avian flu activities. Meanwhile, $111 million of the funding will allow the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to better equip jurisdictions to monitor people exposed to the virus and to boost the production and distribution of diagnostic test kits. The remaining $11 million will be awarded by the National Institutes of Health for more research on countermeasures against the H5N1 virus.
In Severe Bird Flu Cases, the Virus Can Mutate as It Lingers in the Body
A 13-year-old girl in British Columbia who was hospitalized with bird flu for several weeks late last year harbored a mutated version of the virus, according to a report published this week in the New England Journal of Medicine. The case was Canada’s first recorded human infection of avian influenza, which has infected at least 66 people in the United States since last March, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This includes the nation’s first severe case, in Louisiana in December.
So far, nearly all of the cases of bird flu in North America have been mild, with symptoms including conjunctivitis, or pink eye, and runny nose, chills, cough and sore throat. “I think it’s concerning but not totally surprising that we would see some sporadic cases where there is severe illness. Even seasonal influenza can occasionally cause very severe illness,” said Dr. Chanu Rhee, an infectious disease and critical care physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and an associate professor of population medicine at Harvard Medical School.
Boston Researcher and Physician Says We’re at ‘Defcon 3’ for Bird Flu. Here’s What That Means.
Runny noses and queasy guts aren’t the only concerns this cold and flu season; public health experts are urging vigilance amid recent reports of severe cases of bird flu in two North American patients. The ominous news of severe avian influenza, or H5N1, in a Louisiana patient and a Canadian teenager, was enough for Dr. Jeremy Faust, a public health researcher and emergency physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, to raise his threat assessment.
“All told, I think a severe case of H5N1 coming on the cusp of the forthcoming peak of flu season merits an increase in our threat assessment of the overall situation,” Faust wrote in his “Inside Medicine” newsletter Tuesday. “I’d say we are now at the equivalent of DEFCON 3 with H5N1.” For the uninitiated, DEFCON 1 is considered the highest threat level — Faust offered New York City in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic as a comparison. DEFCON 3, per Military.com, is “generally seen as a standby level of alert.”
“Nobody knows what will happen next. Are we on the precipice of another horrible pandemic? Or will we dodge a bullet?” Faust wrote, adding, “What is undeniable is that our current circumstance is akin to a game of Russian Roulette — and there have never been more bullets in the chamber.”
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Health Officials Encourage Getting All Seasonal Vaccines in Same Visit
Rocky Mount Telegram reported:
The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently endorsed a policy that encourages Americans to seize upon the opportunity to get immunized against all seasonal contagions in one visit. For people with weakened immune systems, the CDC recommends the wisest course of action to take is to be fully vaccinated against all three of the major fall and winter respiratory viruses — flu, COVID-19 and respiratory syncytial virus, which is better known as RSV.
Liz Lord, deputy health director for Nash County, also endorses the policy because it makes it easier to be protected. “The CDC has reviewed the available scientific evidence and concluded that people can get the flu, COVID-19 and RSV vaccines at the same healthcare provider visit,” Lord said.
“People may consider getting these vaccines at the same visit if they have trouble making or getting to multiple healthcare provider visits, are at high risk for exposure to these germs in a short time or are at higher risk of becoming seriously sick from flu, COVID-19 or RSV. Other people may prefer to space the vaccines out over time.”
Tuberculosis Strains Resistant to New Drugs Are Being Transmitted Between Patients, Study Finds
Tuberculosis (TB) is the world’s biggest infectious disease killer, with multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) posing a particular threat to global health. A study led by the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (Swiss TPH) shows that resistance to the new MDR-TB treatment regimen recently recommended by the World Health Organization is already spreading between patients. The findings, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, highlight the urgent need for better surveillance and infection control to counteract the rise in antimicrobial resistance.
More than 10 million people fall sick with TB every year. The disease remains the world’s biggest infectious disease killer, with an estimated 1.25 million annual deaths. The disease is still found in every country, but certain regions, such as India, Central Asia and Southern Africa, bear a particularly high burden. MDR-TB continues to pose a major public health threat, adding to the growing concern of rising antimicrobial resistance.
A Respiratory Virus Is Spreading in China. Here’s Why It’s Not the New COVID-19.
Five years after COVID-19 began spreading in the Chinese city of Wuhan, cases of human metapneumovirus, or HMPV, which also causes respiratory infections, have risen in the country, particularly among children. Between Dec. 23 and 29, 2024, cases of HMPV rose from the week before, particularly in Northern China and in children under 14, the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention said on Jan. 2. Cases of influenza, rhinovirus and mycoplasma pneumoniae also increased, it said.
Videos of crowded hospitals in China posted online are reminiscent of the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, and Google searches in the US related to HMPV and the likelihood a pandemic and lockdowns are on the horizon have spiked in recent days.
But HMPV doesn’t pose a similar threat to COVID-19 because it is not a new virus, meaning we understand how it affects humans and most people already have some immunity against it.
Antibiotic Emergency ‘Could Claim 40 Million Lives in Next 25 Years’
Dame Sally Davies has a straightforward message about the coming year. We face a growing antibiotic emergency that could have devastating impacts on men, women and children across the globe, she says. Davies, a former chief medical officer for England, has become a leading advocate for global action to fight the scourge of superbugs.
She told the Observer that there is a real danger that routine procedures — from surgery to childbirth — could carry widespread life-threatening risks because of the spread of bacteria that possess antimicrobial resistance (AMR). “About a million people die every year because of the spread of microbial resistance, and that figure will rise over the next 25 years,” she said. “It is really scary.”
Estimates suggest that by 2050, death rates from AMRs will have doubled, with figures indicating almost 40 million people will lose their lives to superbugs over the next 25 years, with elderly people especially at risk.
