Until yesterday, the cases of bird flu that had been detected in the country had a connection with the livestock or poultry world.
But the introduction on August 22 raised questions for US authorities, who asked for additional tests to be carried out.
The result was that it was indeed a case of bird flu, they said in a press release published by the federal Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC) and the local health authorities of this central American state.
“No cases of transmission through close contact (of the patient) have been identified,” the CDC said.
This is the 14th case identified in the US this year and the first in which the patient had no known contact with an infected animal or bird.
Since the spring, an epidemic of bird flu has occurred in the country, with unusual characteristics: the disease, which above all affects farmed and wild birds, is now spreading to cows. The first case, in Texas, in the southern US, was announced on April 1. It was the world’s first known case of the bird flu virus being transmitted from a cow to a human.
However, no cases of the disease have been reported in cows raised primarily for their milk in Missouri.
Experts are concerned about the increasing number of mammals becoming infected with the disease, despite the fact that human cases remain few. The reason they are worried is that the wide spread makes it easier for the virus to mutate, which can gradually acquire characteristics that would make it easier to spread from person to person.
The risk to the population “remains low”, however, reassured the CDC yesterday, which at this stage is not changing its recommendations for dealing with the epidemic.
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