Health officials are calling for alertness Bird flubut some experts have reported why new human cases have stopped appearing.
Looking for whether the case has been weakened Government cuts? Driven by the Trump administration’s deportation, are you afraid to test responsibility for many U.S. cases? Is this just a natural tide in the infection?
"We just don't know why there is no case," said Jennifer Nuzzo, director of the Brown University Pandemic Center. "I think we should assume that the infections that occur in migrant workers are not detected."
this H5N1 bird flu Over the past 14 months, starting in the U.S. people and cows, wild birds, poultry and other animals have spread widely around the world on the issue of U.S. and cows, and it is reported that the infection of 70 people in the U.S. is in the U.S. - most of them are dairy and poultry farm workers, most of them are symptomatic. one People are dead in Louisiana.
Although the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the virus still poses a low risk to the public, infectious disease experts noted that each new infection increases the chances of avian influenza mutations and causing more severe illness.
Dr. Kamran Khan, Recently, we really have this virus that develops into a virus with pandemic potential Tell "60 minutes". "The reality is we're sorry about next week or next year, or never. I don't think it's never been. But it may be much earlier than any of us want."
California is a hot spot, with three-quarters of infection in cows. However, the tests and cases performed in people have collapsed. State records show that at least 50 people were tested each month at the end of 2024, but only three people were tested in March, April, and no tests were conducted so far. Overall, the state has confirmed 38 H5N1 infections, not after January 14.
In a call with U.S. doctors this month, a CDC official noted that bird flu is seasonal: cases peak in the fall and winter, possibly due to the migration patterns of wild birds being the main spreader of the virus. This could mean that the United States is experiencing a natural (possibly temporary) decline in cases.
Michael Osterholm, an infectious disease expert at the University of Minnesota, said severe human infections that require hospitalization are unlikely to attract attention.
More importantly, the patchwork system that monitors viruses in sewage and wastewater has recently proposed limited activities.
New infections are still detected in birds and cattle, but not as frequent as a few months ago.
"It is no surprise that human cases have also declined, given that the number of animal testing has declined based on U.S. Department of Agriculture data," the CDC said in a statement.
Dr. Gregory Gray said he was not worried that the CDC had not found any new cases in a few months.
Gray is Gray said, “I don’t think anyone will hide anything.”
But Osterholm and some other experts believe that at least some mild infections may not have been detected. They fear that the efforts to find them have been eroding.
Keith Poulsen, director of the Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, said the resignation of the USDA and the Food and Drug Administration Veterinary Medicine Center could slow down the government's bird flu monitoring.
He said three out of 14 experts accepted a deferred resignation offer from the National Animal Health Laboratory Network, which has made important diagnostic information about the disease outbreak. A spokesperson for the agency said they are more than 15,000 USDA employees who accept the offer job.
The FDA's veterinary lab investigation and response network has fired dozens of employees, the organization investigates animal diseases caused by problems including contaminated pet food. Cats in several states became ill and died after eating primitive pet foods infected with H5N1.
“Starting surveillance has indeed dropped sharply since Trump took office,” said Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at the University of Saskatchewan, Canada.
She wondered if immigrant migrant workers were too scared to stand up.
"I can't go with people who have the potential to be shipped to Salvadoran Gulag to report exposure or seek tests," she said.
The CDC describes the public's risk as low, although people who work with cattle and poultry or come into contact with wild birds are higher.
Earlier this month, an agency evaluated that there is currently a "medium risk" that currently circulating bird flu could cause The pandemic in the futurebut the CDC stressed that other forms of influenza that appeared in the past have similarly marked.
Despite this, the research continues.
David Douphrate, a workplace health and safety expert who leads the project, said Texas A&M University scientists have collected blood samples from dairy workers in multiple states from multiple states to test for signs of past H5N1 exposure. The one-year study, funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), is expected to end in July.
Duprit said he used his two decades of relationships with dairy producers and workers to get into the farm.
“We have a very good engagement,” Duphrate said. “They are very willing.”
The study found some evidence that some cases were not discovered.
"In a recent study of dairy workers, their blood tested antibodies for H5N1, not looking for viruses, but for the immune system's memory of the virus. It turns out that 7% of those people are actually antibodies to H5N1 in every 15 workers," Khan told "60 minutes." 60 minutes. ”
Similar surveillance is also “deeply needed” in domestic cats, said Kristen Coleman, a researcher at University Park University in Maryland. She recently published a paper infection of paper influenza in birds between 2004 and 2024.
Barn cat who died after drinking Raw milk It is one of the first signs that cows have infected cows in 2024. Since then, the Department of Agriculture has confirmed that most of the more than 120 domestic cats infected with the virus in the U.S. have found most of the dead cats. Little is known about mild infections whether cats can recover from bird flu or whether the virus can spill into people.