A new pandemic? Mysterious bird flu cases reported in the United States

The world is still reeling from the memory of the Covid-19 global pandemic. However, a new epidemic could be just around the corner, and it’s important to keep an eye on new, infectious diseases.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have announced that a patient in Missouri has been diagnosed with a mysterious bird flu, of the H5N1 strain of the virus.

Image: CDC / Unsplash

According to CNN, the way in which the person became infected is still under investigation. However, the strain is closely related to a virus that affected dairy cattle in at least 14 states in 2024.

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The Missouri patient raises the number of infected humans to 14, the majority of them having close contact with infected animals.

However, the Missouri case had no close contact with wild birds, poultry, cats, or cattle. They also didn’t consume any raw dairy products.

Spanish newspaper El País reports that US authorities claim that so far there’s no evidence of human-to-human transmission.

However, the lack of evidence doesn’t mean getting this mysterious bird flu from infected individuals should be ruled out.

According to El Pais, the world is currently facing the worst avian influenza epidemic known to date, killing hundreds of millions of wild and domestic animals.

Although avian influenza flu should only affect birds, there have been a few reports of H5N1 jumping into mammals, such as seals and sea lions in South America or minks in Spain.

However, one of the main hubs for infections has been dairy farms in the United States, with the pathogen accumulating in the cows' udders.

It's too early to tell if this mysterious bird flu will become in a major concern, but let's not forget that people thought that everyone was overreacting about Covid-19 until it was too late.

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