Why a leading bird flu expert isn’t convinced that the risk H5N1 poses to people has declined
News that H5N1 avian influenza has breached another mammalian species — this time dairy cows — has taken the flu science community aback. Though cows previously had been seen to be susceptible to human flu viruses, and could be experimentally infected with H5 in a lab, the absence of cow involvement until now in H5’s nearly 30-year history lulled scientists into thinking the species was outside the virus’s remit.
Further elevating the concern this discovery has triggered is the fact that a dairy farm worker in Texas was infected with H5N1, though the unnamed individual’s only symptom was conjunctivitis.
