This worker experienced respiratory symptoms like sore throat and cough
By Diego Flammini
Staff writer
Farms.com
A third U.S. dairy worker has become infected with the H5N1 avian flu virus.
The CDC confirmed a second dairy farm employee in Michigan who had exposure to infected cows became ill with the virus.
This employee worked at a different farm in Michigan than the previous worker who became ill earlier in May.
What makes this most recent case different is the symptoms of the sick worker.
“This individual had respiratory symptoms, including a cough, congestion, sore throat and watery eyes,” Dr. Nirav Shah, the principal deputy director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said at a briefing Thursday, CNN reported.
They are isolating at home and on the road to recovery, the CDC said in a May 30 update.
The first Michigan dairy employee only showed signs of pinkeye.
State officials are imploring farmworkers to wear personal protective equipment to prevent these situations from occurring.
“With the first case in Michigan, eye symptoms occurred after a direct splash of infected milk to the eye. With this case, respiratory symptoms occurred after direct exposure to an infected cow,” Dr. Natasha Bagdasarian, chief medical executive with the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, said in a May 30 update. “Neither individual was wearing full personal protective equipment (PPE). This tells us that direct exposure to infected livestock poses a risk to humans, and that PPE is an important tool in preventing spread among individuals who work on dairy and poultry farms.”
The CDC is also stressing that the risk to the general public who don’t have exposure to infected animals is low.
Overall, this is the third case of a human catching H5N1 related to dairy cattle.
The first occurred in Texas in late March.
That employee only reported eye inflammation and recovered.