2023-07-04 16:48:31
So far, no human case of avian flu has been detected in France, but the Health Risk Watch and Anticipation Committee (Covars) recommends a series of measures intended to reduce the risk of contamination to humans.
If France remains spared for the moment, in the world, several cases of transmission of the A virus (H5N1) to humans have been detected: Spain, United Kingdom, United States, Ecuador, China Vietnam and recently in Cambodia, where a child died last February.
Public Health France told our colleagues at leprogrès.fr:
“The clinical forms ranged from mild or even asymptomatic symptoms, to severe forms with admission to intensive care and death. To date, no human-to-human transmission has been demonstrated.
Yet, according to Covars, the risk is growing due to
“the loss of seasonality of avian infection, the increase in the number of cases in livestock, the diversification of wild species affected and the increase in cases in mammals”. But also of climate change and the biodiversity crisis which “modifies the trajectories of wild birds and their resistance to viruses”.
Vaccination, preventive measures to be applied on farms, animal and human surveillance and funding for research on the issue of avian flu and HPAI are the four areas of prevention exposed by the Covars, which encourages
“carry out a vaccination strategy for poultry as soon as possible, extend the recommendation for vaccination against seasonal influenza to people exposed, in contact with birds potentially carrying the virus, adapt prevention and management measures for farms by looking for alternatives to preventive culling, composing strategic stocks of pre-pandemic vaccines”.
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