Colorado state health officials have identified three new possible cases of bird flu among poultry workers.
The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment said in a statement Friday that identified three presumptive positive cases of bird flu in workers who were responding to an outbreak of the virus at a commercial egg operation.
State agencies notified the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and sent the sample to confirm that it was indeed bird flu.
“The workers were slaughtering poultry on a farm in northeast Colorado and were experiencing mental symptoms,” the statement said.
Symptoms included conjunctivitis – commonly known as pink eye – and common respiratory infection symptoms. None of the individuals were hospitalized, the state said.
“State epidemiologists suspect that the poultry workers’ cases are the result of working directly with infected birds,” the statement read.
The CDC is sending a team to Colorado to support an investigation, the federal agency said.
“As we learn more, we will continue to assess the situation and provide updates,” the CDC said. “These preliminary results again highlight the risk of exposure to affected animals.”
Both agencies list the risk to the general public as low.
The CDC said earlier this month that the fourth human case of bird flu has been reported.
If the federal agency tests the Colorado cases and they are confirmed for the H5N1 virus, the number of infected people will increase to seven.
The concern began after more than 40 cattle herds across the country confirmed cases of the virus.
There is concern about a potential widespread outbreak. A former CDC director predicts that there will one day be a bird flu pandemic, once the virus learns to transfer from human to human. The death rate from bird flu is much higher than that from COVID-19.
This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story
