The World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) is calling for more action to control the spread of H5N1 in humans, according to a Reuters report.
This comes after the first human H5N1 death in the U.S. was announced this week. The patient, a Louisiana resident, was over age 65 and was reported to have underlying medical conditions. The patient contracted H5N1 after exposure to a combination of a non-commercial backyard flock and wild birds. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) initially reported this case as the first instance of human H5N1 in the United States to be described as “severe.”
“This situation really highlights the importance of managing risk at the animal source, which is really essential to prevent the spread of bird flu and its possible transmission to humans,” WOAH Director General Emmanuelle Soubeyran told Reuters.
Soubeyran said there should be more investment in monitoring the virus in wild birds and animals to control what she said was an unprecedented outbreak due to its global reach and the number of species infected, notably dairy cattle in the United States.
“If there is a lack of awareness of the situation, people are more likely to become infected and the virus will be able to circulate between poultry, pigs, cows and wild animals. This is where a mutation (of the virus) will happen and potentially create a pandemic,” she said, adding a wider use of vaccination and control measures should be used to avoid the spread of the virus.
