The Arizona Department of Health Services (ADHS) on December 6 reported the state’s first human avian flu patients, both of whom were exposed to infected poultry at a commercial farm in Pinal County.
If confirmed by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the cases would push the national total to 60 and the number of state reporting human cases to eight.Â
In a statement, the ADHS said both patients had mild symptoms, received treatment, and have recovered. It added that two avian flu outbreaks have recently been reported in the state: one at a Pinal County layer farm that had more than 790,000 birds and the other in a backyard flock in Maricopa County that has 490 birds.
Potential second case in a California child
Meanwhile, health officials in Marin County, California, in a December 6 public health update, first reported by the Los Angeles Times, said over the past week it has been investigating a possible avian flu case involving a child and is working with the California Department of Public Health and the CDC to confirm the findings and determine how the child may have been exposed.
If confirmed, it would be California’s second unexplained avian flu infection in a child. California’s first case, in Alameda County, which also marked the nation’s first H5 case in a child, was detected through the state’’s flu surveillance system. It was first reported on November 19 and was confirmed by CDC testing a few days later.
