By Leah Douglas and Tom Polansek
(Reuters) – People hospitalized with the flu should be tested for bird flu within 24 hours, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Thursday, expanding the agency’s efforts to tackle rising human infections.
The purpose of the advisory is to prevent delays in identifying human cases of avian influenza A (H5N1) virus amid high levels of seasonal influenza.
The risk to the general public from bird flu is low and there is no further evidence of person-to-person spread, the agency said.
Still, patients who test positive for influenza A, especially those in the intensive care unit, should ideally be tested within 24 hours of hospitalization to identify the subtype of the virus and determine whether they have bird flu, the agency said.
Before Thursday’s guidelines, hospitals typically sent batches of samples to labs for subtyping every few days.
Faster testing also aims to help doctors identify how people became infected and provide their close contacts with testing and medication more quickly, if needed, Nirav Shah, the agency’s principal deputy director, told reporters.
The CDC does not believe that bird flu infection has been absent in humans, Shah said. No surveillance system detects 100% of cases, he added later.
“The system is working as it should,” Shah said, adding that health officials want results as soon as possible in case any public health action is needed. “What we need is to move to a system that tells us what’s going on right now.”
Nearly 70 people in the US, most of them farmers, have contracted bird flu since April as the virus circulated among poultry flocks and dairy herds. Three people have tested positive with no clear source of exposure to the virus, according to the CDC.
Most human infections have been mild, but one death was reported in Louisiana last week.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has more than 300 employees working on the bird flu response and has spent $1.5 billion on its efforts to contain the spread among poultry and dairy cattle, said Eric Deeble, the agency’s deputy undersecretary.
The USDA said last week that it would replenish stocks of avian flu vaccine for poultry.
USDA officials have met several times with the transition team of Donald Trump’s new administration to try to ensure a smooth handover of the agency’s efforts to contain the spread of the virus, including an exercise at the White House desk on Wednesday, Deeble said.
Officials from the Department of Health and Human Services, which includes the CDC, also met repeatedly with the transition team on Zoom (NASDAQ: ) calls and shared their handbook on bird flu, officials said in a press call.
HHS said Thursday it plans to invest $211 million in mRNA-based vaccine technology to better respond to emerging infectious diseases such as bird flu.
