US health authorities warned that dairy workers remain exposed to the risk of the H5N1 bird flu virus, which is infecting dairy herds, and urged them to wear protective equipment to avoid infection.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) urged farmers, workers and emergency responders to wear appropriate protective equipment when in direct or close physical contact with sick birds, livestock, feces, raw milk or contaminated surfaces.
The warning coincides with a letter posted online in the New England Journal of Medicine detailing the case of a dairy worker who was infected with the virus in March and developed conjunctivitis.
Infection with the avian virus is rare in humans, and the dairy worker’s case is the second known case in the United States, but it occurs after a worrying spread of the virus in various mammal species.
This raises fears that widespread exposure in people could make the virus spread more easily between people and trigger a global pandemic.
With information from Reuters
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