Human cases of H7N9 bird flu are surging, officials say stat : STAT

And with this large burst of cases, H7N9 has overtaken another bird flu, H5N1, which has been causing sporadic human infections at least a decade longer than H7N9. Like all bird flu viruses, H7N9 originated in wild aquatic birds such as ducks. Overall, 460 of the 1,258 H7N9 cases have been recorded in the latest wave of cases. ATLANTA — Scientists and public health authorities are expressing alarm about an extraordinary surge in bird flu infections among humans. Peiris, a veteran bird flu researcher, called H7N9 "the most significant pandemic threat currently."A CDC risk assessment concurs, placing H7N9 at the top of the list of pandemic threats from among a dozen bird and animal flu viruses.




She said the flu cases could continue to remain consistent with the current numbers or even go up. Since then the numbers have started to decrease, according to the Bell County Public Health District. The number of flu cases in McLennan County has increased in the past few weeks. "The flu shot is slightly less effective than it would be in an average season but it's still pretty good for what we would see when we are looking at the effectiveness of the flu shot," Newman said. In Brazos County, at the end of January the number of flu cases were 147.


"We are seeing significantly more flu cases this flu season over prior years," said Gene Faile, president and CEO of Wilkes Regional Medical Center. Faile said the WRMC Emergency Department treated 12 confirmed flu cases in January and February last year and 312 in those months this year. Wilkes Health Department Director Ann Absher on Friday said the department started seeing a big uptick in flu cases starting five or six weeks ago. Temporary visitor restrictions were implemented Friday for all WRMC facilities and are in effect for the rest of the flu season. Flu cases increased sharply in Wilkes County in January and February and the influenza season isn't over yet, said local health officials.



collected by :Lucy William
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