Public health officials of the County of San Mateo announced Thursday that they had discovered a pet cat in the moon bay infected by the H5N1 bird flu. This occurs just two days after having declared that it has found the virus in a herd of hindcudiary poultry in Redwood City.
The reports occurred in the heels of the momentary centers for the control of diseases and the release of prevention of a table showing that a teenager had potentially been infected with the virus by a cat for pets. According to the New York Times, the information – which was published in the first weekly report in the agency’s morbidity and mortality from President Trump, and which were largely focused on California forest fires – was “Briefly” before disappearing.
The CDC did not answer data questions.
Seema Lakdawala, microbiologist at Emory University in Atlanta, said that it would be “prematurely to interpret the data in the table without reading the full report” – a feeling taken up by several other scientists contacted by the Los Angeles Times to examine the chart.
According to screenshots of a data table made available by the Washington Post, it seems that there were two households affected by the virus, although there were no details to identify where These infections have occurred.
In cleaning 1, there was initially a cat who fell ill. Four days later, this cat died and was tested positive for H5N1. The same day, another cat from the house also fell ill. Two days after that – the sixth day of infection in the household – a teenager living in the house began to show symptoms. This child has tested negative for the disease, just like an adult without symptoms and a teenager without symptoms in the house.
In cleaning 2 – which seems to be linked to cleaning 1, although the specificities are vague – a worker of adult dairy products began to show signs of illness a week after the first Cat of the household 1 began to present symptoms . This person was not tested for the virus and was “lost follow -up”, according to the CDC Graphic. Two days later, a cat living in household 2 began to show symptoms. The next day, the cat died and was tested positive for H5N1. A second cat in household 2 tested negative for the disease.
The CDC table – from the friction of the site – does not provide any information related to the way in which the initial cat in household 1 has been infected.
Lakdawala noted that even if none of the people and some of the cats have not been tested positive for the virus, “sometimes the nasal tests of the flu are negative, but there can be a virus reproducing elsewhere.” Indeed, since the beginning of the H5N1 epidemic, the researchers have noted that the swabs taken from a place in a person or a cat, such as the nasal passage, can be negative, while holder of another part, Like the back of the throat, can test positive.
When asked if the case had taken place in California, where 36 of the 40 cases of H5N1 linked to Dairy occurred, a spokesperson for the Department of Public Health of the State declared that his department ” can only speak in case of California “and that the current status of the state on the bird flu is up to date. She said that the department officials were “not aware of any confirmed human cases of bird flu in California associated with exposure to domestic cats”.
Be that as it may, San Mateo’s report is worrying – adding to the growing count of household cats infected with H5N1.
H5N1 has been detected in more than a dozen California cats, notably in Contra Costa, Fresno, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, San Bernadino, the counties of San Mateo and Tulare as well as scores in at least 17 other states, especially Colorado, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Southern Dakota, Texas, Utah and Wyoming.
According to a statement from health officials of the County of San Mateo, the cat was a mistake which had been taken by a family of Half Moon Bay. A county press release said that when the cat began to show symptoms, family members led it to a veterinarian for examination and test. The results of the laboratory confirmed the bird’s bird flu and the cat was “euthanized because of its condition”.
County health officials said they didn’t know how the cat had been infected and did not describe the cat’s symptoms. There is currently no confirmation at the moment when the family welcomed the cat, or in what condition it was at the time of adoption.
As a rule, the symptoms of the bird flu in cats include a loss of appetite, lethargy and fever, as well as neurological signs, such as the displacement in a repetitive way in circles or “turning”, tremors, convulsions or blindness. Other symptoms include serious depression; eye or nose discharge; Fast and shallow breathing, difficulty breathing; and sneeze or cough. Some cats will die.
The Declaration of the County of San Mateo also referred the readers to a CDC web page indicating that “even if you are unlikely that you are sick of the bird flu by direct contact with your infected pet, it’s possible . “
The infected cat report in San Mateo occurred two days after the county reported a small epidemic in a herd of hind -breakdown poultry at Redwood City – although there was no human case associated with this event.
In the press release, the county advised residents who keep the herds of poultry to monitor the signs of flu with birds and take appropriate measures – such as washing hands before and after handling birds, and disinfecting shoes to reduce the Risk of propagation of bird flu.
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