What a US farmworker’s case of bird flu tells us about tracking the infection

A US farmworker who caught bird flu after working with dairy cattle in Texas appears to be the first known case of mammal-to-human transmission of the virus, a new study shows.

A US farmworker who caught bird flu after working with dairy cattle in Texas appears to be the first known case of mammal-to-human transmission of the virus, a new study shows. The dairy worker sought care in late March after developing painful red, swollen, weeping eyes with burst blood vessels. He had no fever, however, and his lungs were clear, according to a letter about the case that was published in the New England Journal of Medicine on Friday. He reported no contact with sick or dead birds or other animals, but he did have repeated direct close contact with dairy cows in the same part of the state with other infected herds. Even though the man didn’t become seriously ill, his case is important because it confirms that humans can be infected with H5N1 after contact with cows. At the same time, it also leaves critical questions unanswered about a virus that the study authors said has “pandemic potential,” and it illustrates how hard it will be to track the infection in this vulnerable population of workers, where testing positive for an infectious disease might mean losing days of work and pay. “For farmworkers specifically, certainly these are folks that are that are living in a state of economic desperation, and what they’re not going to do is, they’re not going to test for something if they don’t have paid sick leave, because they cannot afford to be sent home and told to stay home and not work,” said Elizabeth Strater, director of strategic campaigns for United Farm Workers. Strater says UFW, like other groups, has heard rumors that there are dairy workers who are sick but don’t want to be tested, but she said it’s nothing that they’re able to confirm.