Colorado rocked by H5N1 bird flu outbreak

The four poultry workers who contracted bird flu did not wear protective gear while slaughtering chickens, the CDC revealed today.

Three cases of bird flu, also known as H5N1, were confirmed on Friday and one person is believed to be infected, but results are still pending.

This brings the total number of human cases to nine and experts fear the virus could mutate and become more dangerous if it continues to transmit between species.

They are so concerned about an outbreak that the federal government paid Moderna — famous for its Covid vaccine — $176 million to create a vaccine for H5N1 for humans in case it becomes a national pandemic.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is reviewing all cases in Colorado to determine whether to update the risk to human health.

An initial analysis has shown no worrisome signs that the virus is mutating, making it easier to spread among people, and the CDC does not currently recommend that livestock producers be vaccinated against the disease, Nirav Shah, principal deputy director of the CDC, told U.S. News.

Federal officials said workers were slaughtering poultry at a farm in northeastern Colorado when they began experiencing mild symptoms, including conjunctivitis, more commonly known as pink eye, and respiratory infections.

None of the Colorado workers have been hospitalized after contracting the virus, but they are being monitored for lingering symptoms.

The CDC told DailyMail.com that it has deployed a nine-person team, including epidemiologists, veterinarians, clinicians and an industrial hygienist, to Colorado to determine whether the public health response to the outbreak needs to be updated.

“Continued monitoring of workers is underway as part of this assessment and additional samples are being tested,” the spokesperson said.

All the infected workers contracted the virus after coming into direct contact with poultry and Shah said they were not wearing protective gear when they killed the chickens.

“The use of PPE was not optimal, especially masks and eye protection,” Shah told US News, referring to personal protective equipment.

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She said the high temperature of 104 degrees Fahrenheit and powerful industrial fans made it difficult for workers to keep protective gear on their faces.

The CDC is concerned that the H5N1 virus, also known as bird flu, has the potential to cause serious illness and that if it spreads easily from person to person, it could “spark a pandemic.”

According to the Cleveland Clinic, about 50% of people diagnosed with the disease die from it, because the H5N1 strain can cause massive inflammation of the respiratory system.

Bird flu began causing panic in 2022 after it spread from dairy cows to a human in Colorado, but it is now responsible for the largest outbreak among birds, killing more than 100 million birds worldwide.

Human outbreaks began to intensify among farmworkers in March, and since then, nine cases of the disease have been reported in the United States, including among the four Colorado workers.

Two farmworkers have been diagnosed with the disease in Michigan, one in Texas and another person in northern Colorado who suffered conjunctivitis after coming into contact with infected livestock.

All symptoms of infection are mild and there are currently no signs that bird flu can be transmitted from human to human.

Federal health officials reported that the new cases were acquired “on a poultry farm experiencing an outbreak of H5N1 virus that is circulating in wild birds and has caused outbreaks in several states in dairy cattle and poultry.”

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has reported 152 confirmed cases of bird flu in cattle herds so far this year.

The CDC is still investigating the outbreak and has warned the public that “if these viruses were to change to spread easily from person to person, it could trigger a pandemic, although to date we have not observed genetic changes in the virus that would make it more likely to spread between humans.”

Health officials worry that influenza A viruses that infect birds and livestock could mutate to spread from person to person more often, and that because the human immune system would not be used to it, a new strain could spread quickly around the world.

They are currently considering whether and when to deploy 4.8 million doses of a bird flu vaccine developed by vaccine maker CSL Seqirus.

The supply would come from a pre-pandemic vaccine reserve funded by the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response.

“It uses a highly scalable production method and is currently able to supply up to 150 million doses of influenza vaccine to support an influenza pandemic response within six months of a pandemic being declared,” CSL Seqirus said in a press release in May.

However, even though the vaccines are expected to be completed later this summer, they may not be immediately authorized for use, and it remains unclear how quickly the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) could approve the vaccines for the public.

“Although CDC’s current assessment of risk to the general public is low, if it is determined that the U.S. population should be vaccinated to prevent H5N1 influenza, then FDA will use its regulatory pathways to take appropriate action to ensure vaccines are available in a timely manner,” an FDA spokesperson told CBS News in May.

Meanwhile, the CDC has warned that people exposed to infected birds or animals, whether through work or other recreational activities, are at higher risk of contracting bird flu.

The report comes just a week after the agency confirmed that a Colorado resident had contracted bubonic plague — a potentially fatal disease transmitted to humans by an infected rodent flea or by handling an infected animal.

The plague killed millions of people in Europe in the 14th century, but it is considered a rare disease in rural areas of New Mexico, Arizona and Colorado.

Each year, about seven people contract the plague in the United States.