Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Infectious Disease topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Cochise County epidemiologist reports no local H5N1 human cases but nationwide animal outbreaks continue
Summary
County epidemiologist provided a situational update on H5N1 avian influenza, reporting no human cases in Arizona and describing recent poultry and cattle outbreaks elsewhere that prompted coordinated responses.
Axel Lopez, an epidemiologist with Cochise County Health and Social Services, gave a situational awareness briefing on H5N1 avian influenza at the Dec. 6 Board of Health meeting, saying there are no confirmed human cases in Arizona and that the CDC currently considers risk to the general public low.
Lopez said counties in other states have reported outbreaks in poultry and cattle this fall. He described a late-November outbreak at an egg-producing facility in Pinal County that led to depopulation of affected flocks and noted a separate backyard-poultry incident in Maricopa County. Lopez said about 800,000 birds were affected in the Pinal outbreak but that "none of those eggs made it to the commercial supply, so it was caught in time." He credited coordination among local, state and federal agencies for containing that incident.
Nationally, Lopez said the CDC has recorded 58 human cases of H5N1 to date; most involved occupational exposure to infected cattle or poultry in a small number of states, with clinical symptoms primarily respiratory illness and, in some cases, conjunctivitis.
Lopez described national surveillance figures and testing activity for the current influenza season: "For this year, there's been 61,000 samples of flu A received either at the state lab or CDC. And out of those 61,000 samples, only 2 have been positive for H5N1." He also explained enhanced surveillance of people exposed to ill animals and said that, of roughly 8,700 identified individuals monitored for exposure, about 400 were tested after developing symptoms and 56 were positive for the H5N1 subtype.
Lopez emphasized that public-health authorities are watching the situation and conducting targeted testing of high-risk groups; he encouraged symptomatic people who work with poultry or cattle to seek medical attention. No human cases were reported in Cochise County at the time of the briefing.
Why it matters: Animal outbreaks can affect food supply and worker safety, and surveillance aims to detect any human infections early. County health officials said they will continue monitoring and coordinating with state and federal partners.
