{"id":2831,"date":"2023-03-14T15:54:34","date_gmt":"2023-03-14T20:54:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/?p=2831"},"modified":"2023-03-14T15:59:04","modified_gmt":"2023-03-14T20:59:04","slug":"what-you-need-to-know-about-the-u-s-bird-flu-outbreak","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/2023\/03\/14\/what-you-need-to-know-about-the-u-s-bird-flu-outbreak\/","title":{"rendered":"What you need to know about the U.S. bird flu outbreak"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"panel body-content\"><div class=\"panel__container\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/newshour\/nation\/what-you-need-to-know-about-the-u-s-bird-flu-outbreak\">PBS Newshour<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/flu\/avianflu\/avian-flu-summary.htm\">The H5N1 strain of bird flu<\/a>\u00a0has left the U.S. reeling as it tries to manage the deadliest bird flu outbreak in history. The PBS NewsHour\u2019s William Brangham joined Nicole Ellis to explain the significance of this avian flu, the severity of the outbreak, and how it will affect people across the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"WATCH: Can bird flu spread to humans? 5 questions about the U.S. outbreak\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/hD8x5TZl4n4?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>What is the bird flu?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Birds carry flu in their stomachs all the time, Brangham said, and it typically doesn\u2019t cause any problems for them or us. But, \u201cEvery now and then, one of those viruses\u201d \u2014 like H5N1 \u2014 \u201cbecomes super contagious amongst birds and becomes deadlier to birds,\u201d Brangham said. This specific strain has been circulating among birds for several years, but has only become deadly in the U.S. in the last year and a half. It\u2019s spread rapidly not only among chickens, but also bird populations that aren\u2019t typically infected with H5N1, like falcons, hawks, eagles, and owls, Brangham said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Brangham said bird flus very rarely jump to humans, and&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/newshour\/show\/avian-flu-strain-raises-concerns-after-outbreaks-among-mammals\">epidemiologists have told him<\/a>&nbsp;there is not an immediate threat to the general population. But the outbreak is deeply concerning for the scientific community and something it is watching closely, Brangham said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/flu\/avianflu\/reported-human-infections.htm\">the few cases\u00a0<\/a>where humans have been infected by this strain of the bird flu, they are almost always cases where someone was directly in touch with birds that were infected or dealing with their feces or their excrements. In those cases, the mortality rate of bird flu among humans is high \u2014 about half of those infected, Brangham said. (We see this in history, too. The 1918 flu, an avian flu that became contagious among humans, killed an estimated 500 million people worldwide).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What\u2019s encouraging for epidemiologists right now is that individuals who became sick with the bird flu \u201cdid not pass the virus to other humans,\u201d an indicator that the virus has not evolved to spread among humans.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>What about consuming chicken or egg products?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The avian flu has made egg prices skyrocket, and affected supply chains both within the U.S. and around the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While that\u2019s caused some pain at the grocery store, there\u2019s no reason to worry about contracting bird flu from the food you bring home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cAll the evidence that is out there right now is that cooking properly your chicken or eggs or turkey or whatever poultry product you\u2019re eating \u2026 to the appropriate temperature, you\u2019re not going to get the bird flu,\u201d Brangham said, adding that farmers are also effectively culling their crops so that the virus doesn\u2019t enter the flu supply.\u201cIf you\u2019re concerned, just do smart food safety practices: cook your eggs, cook your chicken, cook your turkey, really wash the boards that you\u2019re using with those, wash your hands,\u201d he said. \u201cJust smart, basic kitchen practices will prevent anything like that from happening.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>PBS Newshour The H5N1 strain of bird flu\u00a0has left the U.S. reeling as it tries to manage the deadliest bird flu outbreak in history. The PBS NewsHour\u2019s William Brangham joined Nicole Ellis to explain the significance of this avian flu, the severity of the outbreak, and how it will affect people across the country. What [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":2832,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Significance of #hpai #h5n1 #birdflu, and severity of outbreak from @pbsnewshour https:\/\/youtu.be\/hD8x5TZl4n4","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[37,21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2831","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian-influenza","category-featured"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Screenshot-2023-03-14-at-16.53.41.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2831","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2831"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2831\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2834,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2831\/revisions\/2834"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2832"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}