MONDAY, Sept. 16, 2024 (Healthday News) -- In a disclosure that can't eliminate the possibility that bird flu may have spread from one human to another for the first time, U.S.
health officials have reported that a person who lived with a Missouri resident infected with H5N1 became sick the same day. That close contact "was also ill at the same time, was not tested, and has since recovered," the U.S.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a weekly flu report released Friday. Still, CDC officials told the New York Times on Friday night that there was “no epidemiological evidence at this time to support person-to-person transmission of H5N1,” although more research is needed. The close contact did experience gastrointestinal symptoms, which can be a sign of influenza infection, the CDC added.
Before the Friday report was posted, neither the CDC nor Missouri health officials had mentioned the close contact’s illness. In fact, CDC officials said in a Thursday media briefing that it was unclear how the first patient had become infected and called the case “a one-off.” And on Thursday evening, Missouri health officials said that “all contacts are known and remained asymptomatic during the observation period,” the Times reported.
But by Friday, CDC officials acknowledged that the household contact’s illness “should have been mentioned in the press briefing, along with the additional context,” the Times reported, though the risk to the public remains l.