Geneva:

The World Health Organization on Thursday warned of the growing spread of H5N1 bird flu to new species, including humans, who face “extremely high” mortality rates.

“I think it’s still a huge problem,” Jeremy Faller, chief scientist at the U.N. health agency, told reporters in Geneva.

The current avian influenza epidemic, which began in 2020, has killed tens of millions of poultry and also infected wild birds and terrestrial and marine mammals.

Cattle and goats were added to the list last month, a surprising development for experts because they were thought to be less susceptible to this type of flu.

The A (H5N1) strain has become a “global zoonotic epidemic,” Farrar said.

“Certainly the most worrying thing is that on the way to infecting ducks and chickens and then increasingly mammals, this virus has now evolved and developed the ability to infect humans and then, crucially, The ability to spread from person to person.”

So far, there is no evidence that influenza A (H5N1) virus is being transmitted from person to person.

But among the hundreds of cases where humans became infected through contact with animals, “the mortality rate is very high,” Farrar said.

The World Health Organization stated that from the beginning of 2023 to April 1 this year, 889 human cases and 463 deaths had been recorded in 23 countries, with a case fatality rate of 52%.

Worryingly, US authorities said earlier this month that a patient in Texas was recovering after being exposed to cows.

This is only the second case in the country of a human testing positive for bird flu, after cattle herds in Texas, Kansas and other states that had apparently been exposed to wild birds were infected with the virus.

The World Health Organization said this also appears to be the first time humans have become infected with the H5N1 influenza strain through contact with infected mammals.

“When you get into the mammalian community, you’re getting closer and closer to humans,” Farrar said, warning that “this virus is just looking for new, novel hosts.”

“This is a real concern.”

Faller called for increased surveillance, insisting “it’s very important to know how many human infections are happening… because that’s where (the virus) adapts”.

“It’s a tragic thing, but if I get H5N1 and die, that’s the end of it. If I spread it in the community and spread it to other people, that starts the cycle.”

He said efforts were underway to develop H5N1 influenza vaccines and treatments, stressing the need to ensure regional and national health authorities around the world have the capacity to diagnose the virus.

Farrar said this was done so that “if the H5N1 virus does come into contact with humans and spread from person to person,” the world would be “able to respond immediately” and urged equitable access to vaccines, treatments and diagnostics.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)