The health authorities of the United States detected in Colorado the presence of the H5 bird flu virus in a 40-year-old man who worked in a poultry plant. The patient realized high fever for a few days as your only symptom and has since recovered", detailed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC, in English). The detection of this case, however, does not change the public health risk assessment of this disease, which the CDC continues to consider low.
"The patient is isolated and receives treatment with the antiviral compound oseltamivir", added the federal agency. He stressed that the infected had direct exposure to chickens in his task of selecting birds with suspected bird flu. This disease caused by the H5N1 virus it has spread to more than two dozen states and has killed hundreds of birds. In the poultry production plants, the selective slaughter of the birds in which the contagion is presumed is carried out. The Colorado Department of Health said the affected man is an inmate who worked on a Montrose County farm under a pre-release employment program. Although it is possible that the detection of avian influenza in the sample taken from this person is the result of superficial contamination of the nasal membrane, "at this point that cannot be determined and the positive result meets the criteria for a case of H5"the CDC added. The agency said it has monitored lto the health of more than 2,500 people who have been exposed to birds infected with the H5N1 virus and this one, in Colorado, is the only one that has been found in humans.
"Others involved in the selective slaughter of the operation in Colorado have tested negative for the H5 virus, but they are being tested again as a precaution"the CDC added