Five poultry workers in northeast Colorado have been diagnosed with bird flu, according to the state’s Department of Health. The workers who were involved in culling poultry at a commercial egg farm are believed to have contracted the virus through direct contact with infected birds. All five exhibited mild symptoms, including conjunctivitis and respiratory issues, but none required hospitalization.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has confirmed four of the cases, with the fifth presumed positive based on state testing. The CDC has sent a team to Colorado to assist with the ongoing investigation. Despite the confirmed cases, the CDC maintains that the risk to the general public remains low.
The workers “exhibited mild symptoms, including conjunctivitis (pink eye) and common respiratory infection symptoms.” They did not require hospitalization.
This outbreak follows Governor Jared Polis’ disaster emergency declaration on July 5 in response to the initial bird flu outbreak. The state’s agriculture industry has been significantly impacted, with the virus also affecting wild birds and dairy cows in several states.
Health experts are concerned now that bird flu is spreading to humans.
“I am extremely concerned that we are on the brink of this being really already in humans—and once it’s in humans, it is going to be a real problem to control,” Seema Lakdawala, a microbiologist and immunologist at Emory University who specializes in influenza told Fortune. “I will tell you that what has been driving me the past few months is trying to prevent H5 from becoming a pandemic…I have never felt that we were as close as we are now.”
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