US will buy flu shots for farmworkers in a bid to prevent bird flu from getting worse

The U.S. pays for flu pictures for farmworkers this 12 months, a method to stop fowl flu from becoming one thing extra harmful.

Dairy and poultry farms are coping with outbreaks of fowl flu, and 13 staff have picked up infections. All circumstances are delicate and are believed to have unfold instantly from contaminated animals to folks.

However well being officers are anxious about what may occur if persons are contaminated with fowl flu and seasonal flu on the identical time. It is doable the viruses might swap gene segments, in a course of that scientists name reassortment. Hen flu, for instance, might acquire the flexibility to unfold as simply amongst folks as seasonal flu does.

To stop coinfections, the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention on Tuesday stated it should spend $5 million to purchase seasonal flu pictures and get livestock staff vaccinated this fall, working with state and native officers. One other $5 million will probably be spent to advertise the pictures.

“We wish to do the whole lot we will to cut back the danger that the virus could change,” stated the CDC’s Dr. Nirav Shah.

Seasonal flu pictures don’t shield in opposition to fowl flu. However they may scale back coinfections, he stated. The CDC can also be discussing the potential of providing some farmworkers the antiviral medicine Tamiflu to stop getting the flu, Shah stated.

U.S. officers say there are a minimum of 200,000 livestock staff within the nation. Based on the Nationwide Heart for Farmworker Well being, a couple of quarter of livestock staff usually get a seasonal flu shot.

Manufacturing of a restricted quantity of fowl flu vaccine for folks is underway, however the authorities is just not recommending it for farmworkers. There is not the type of person-to-person unfold that may set off that type of vaccination marketing campaign, Shah stated.

A fowl flu virus has been spreading since 2020 amongst mammals—together with canines, cats, skunks, bears and even seals and porpoises—in scores of nations. Earlier this 12 months, the virus generally known as H5N1 was detected in U.S. livestock.

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