Discover the intriguing case of a dairy worker who contracted bird flu with an unusual symptom – pinkeye. Could this be a new transmission method? Find out more.
Hold onto your hats, folks! A Texas dairy worker who caught bird flu from an ailing cow back in late March showed none of the symptoms we usually associate with the flu, such as fever, coughing, or sneezing. Interestingly, the only sign indicating he’d been infected was a severe case of pinkeye. The details of this man’s case – the single documented occurrence of bird flu moving from bovine to human – were released on Friday in the New England Journal of Medicine.
The virus that was causing a stir among dairy cows back in late March was bird flu. Around the same time, the worker started to experience discomfort and redness in his right eye. Eventually, he ended up with ruptured blood vessels in both eyes. The diagnosis? All signs pointed towards conjunctivitis, commonly known as pinkeye. Notably, the man had been in direct contact with both healthy and diseased cows.
“Swabs of the man’s eye and nose revealed he had the same strain of bird flu, H5N1, that was circulating in dairy cows.”
He was prescribed the antiviral Tamiflu and told to isolate as he recovered. Fortunately, no one he lived with fell ill, although they were also given the antiviral treatment as a preventive measure.
Intriguingly, he never developed any respiratory symptoms, which suggests that the virus may not spread easily from person to person via coughs or sneezes. Genetic testing performed on samples taken from the man’s eyes and nose confirmed that there weren’t any mutations present in the virus that would enable it to propagate in this manner.
However, the potential threat of such mutations occurring remains a real concern, especially given the continued spread of the virus among dairy cows. As of Friday, the outbreak has affected 36 herds in nine states: Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Michigan, New Mexico, North Carolina, South Dakota, Ohio, and Texas.
“H5N1 viruses ‘pose pandemic potential and have caused severe respiratory disease in infected humans worldwide.'”Worthy of mention, data from other countries suggest that the virus could have a fatality rate of over 50% in humans, according to the CDC.
After the incident, over 100 people were advised to monitor themselves for symptoms, and roughly 25 had been tested for bird flu. As of now, all tests have returned negative results. Still, some veterinary experts raised concerns that cases might be going undetected amongst dairy farmers due to fears of losing their flock if they reported a positive result.
“Farmers are very, very concerned about what happens if they’re positive. A lot of them just want it to go away.” – Dr. Keith Poulsen, director of the Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory
Lastly, while the authors of the report couldn’t completely exclude the possibility that the Texas dairy worker was infected through respiratory droplets, they speculated that the man likely got infected by rubbing his eyes with a contaminated hand, even though he wore gloves but lacked any form of eye protection. The CDC now recommends anyone in contact with dairy cattle to don protective equipment, including safety glasses, waterproof aprons, and boots that can be sanitized.
Despite all uncertainties, the authors of the report confessed they were not able to follow up with the worker to conduct additional testing to study his antibodies or observe how long the virus stayed in his system.
