Michigan now leads the United States in the number of outbreaks of H5N1 influenza in cattle. After CDC , authorities are beginning to . They would not get an H5N1 influenza vaccine yet, though. While , the priority is to prevent workers in those industries from getting human influenza (either H1N1 or H3N2, the common strains we usually see in the winter). Why is this the case?
The way an influenza virus becomes a pandemic strain is by mutating -- or adapting -- to make people sick. They do this in one of several ways. First, the virus might mutate naturally, ending up with an adaptation that allows it to infect humans and be transmissible from person to person.
Second, an animal or person could get two different strains of influenza. One strain is not adapted to cause disease in the animal, but the other is. The viruses then trade genes, and the virus not adapted to cause disease gains a gene that allows it to cause disease. This is the situation that led to the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic. That time, pigs were infected with human and pandemic strains. The pandemic strain then gained a gene that allowed it to infect humans, cause disease, and spread from person to person.
The fear today is that cattle or poultry will be the “mixing vessel” for H5N1 influenza to gain a human influenza gene, like pigs were back in 2009. To prevent that, people working in dairy or poultry farms should be vaccinated, so they don’t get the human strain to begin with and give it to a cow or a chicken.
People who do not work in those industries should not worry about H5N1 influenza at this time, especially in the United States, where flu season is still some months away. However, they should visit with their healthcare providers if they have any signs or symptoms of any disease, follow their provider’s advice and recommendations, and practice good health habits like hand washing.
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