The ominous news of severe avian influenza, or H5N1, in a Louisiana patient and a Canadian teenager was enough for Dr. Jeremy Faust, a public health researcher and emergency physician at Brigham and Women's Hospital, to raise his threat assessment. All told, I think a severe case of H5N1 coming on the cusp of the forthcoming peak of flu season merits an increase in our threat assessment of the overall situation, Faust wrote in his 'Inside Medicine' newsletter Tuesday.
Nobody knows what will happen next. Are we on the precipice of another horrible pandemic? Or will we dodge a bullet? What is undeniable is that our current circumstance is akin to a game of Russian Roulette - and there have never been more bullets in the chamber.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reported 66 confirmed human cases of bird flu in the United States so far during the 2024 outbreak. The U.S. saw its first reported dairy cow infections in late March and marked its first reported human case on April 1, according to the CDC.
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