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The United States must strengthen measures to control the country’s flu epidemic and limit the growing risk that the virus evolves to spread more easily between humans, have warned international health experts.
Scientists have called for an increase in the vaccination of agricultural workers and more efforts to stem the propagation of farm animals as a H5N1 pathogen continue to infect Cattle and chickens across the country.
The epidemic is an early test for the administration of President Donald Trump, who is already Writing commitments to global efforts on the control and prevention of diseases.
“It is undoubtedly largely irresponsible for the American authorities to allow such a high level of viral transmission in dairy cattle, as this constitutes such a major threat to global human health,” said Professor James Wood, expert in infectious diseases at the British University of Cambridge.
He added that the borders such as the stricter movements of cattle “would greatly reduce human exposure and be concerned in all other countries”.
Experts have looked with an increasing alarm because H5N1 has been circulating in the United States for more than nine months. The epidemic led to 67 confirmed human casesMainly among people working with cattle and chickens, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention American.
THE First death Was reported this month, although no case of human transmission to human has yet been documented.
Virologists fear a reassortment of the genetic material of the H5N1 pathogen with another animal or human flu, creating a new virus which is more likely to be transmitted between people. The possibility of this scenario increases as H5N1 circulates in the United States during the winter flu season.
There were about 12mn-22mn Human influenza case Between October 1 and January 11, according to the CDC. On January 16, he urged hospitals to analyze within 24 hours People with flu have actually contracted the bird fluEspecially if patients were in intensive care. The CDC said in November that it had provided Human flu vaccines agricultural workers in 12 states.
He considered the risk of H5N1 for the public to be weak, but added that he “closely monitored this dynamic situation”.
The World Animal Health Organization, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Health Organization have declared that governments should intensify several measures to combat the propagation of the bird flu. These include strengthening viruse tests, sequencing and sharing data, improving agricultural biosecurity and the protection of people exposed to infected animals, said Maria Van Kerkhove, a senior official.
“More can and must be made to reduce the spread of avian flu in animals, between different animal species and for humans,” said Van Kerkhove, acting director of pandemic preparation.
WHO encourages work on the development of animal vaccines and their potential use to reduce the spread of the bird flu, added Van Kerkhove.
The three main manufacturers of flu vaccines For humans – CSL Seqirus, Sanofi and GSK – are well placed to answer if the epidemic becomes a pandemic. In October, the trio signed an agreement of $ 72 million with the US government, which included commitments to prepare to distribute doses quickly and maintain supply levels.
The US government, on January 17, gave Moderna $ 590 million, which developed a flu vaccine using similar technology based on messenger RNA like its cocovid jab.
The JAB Seqirus has been ordered by many European governments, but Finland is the only one to have confirmed that it uses vaccines to inoculate agricultural workers. The vaccine manufacturer said that the Nordic country also put its own independent study on the safety and efficiency of the JAB.
The American response to the bird flu was still complicated by a “short break” placed on “mass communications and public appearances which are not directly linked to emergencies or essential to the preservation of health” by the Department of Health and social services and other organizations.
The Trump administration launched the break to “set up an examination and prioritization process,” said the health service.
Trump and his allies criticize the fundamental aspects of international disease control, while Robert F Kennedy Jr, his candidate for the Secretary of Health and Social Services, is a long -standing skeptic of the vaccine.
One of Trump’s first actions after its inauguration was to trigger the one-year process to remove the United States from WHO. He took the same measures in 2020 during his previous mandate, but President Joe Biden canceled the decision to take office in January 2021.
Visualization of data by Bob Haslett
This part was updated to clarify the position of the WHO on animal vaccines for the bird flu.