Half of that money will go toward purchasing seasonal flu shots for livestock workers in states that are being hit hardest by bird flu.
Senior administration officials stressed that while the seasonal flu vaccines won’t offer cross-protection against bird flu, they’re hoping to prevent co-infections of both viruses. They’re also aiming to reduce the chances of the two pathogens mingling to form a new influenza virus.
“Such dual infections, while rare, could potentially result in an exchange of genetic material between the two different influenza viruses, seasonal and H5,” said Nirav Shah, principal deputy director at CDC.
“This is a process that’s known as reassortment, and in theory reassortment could lead to a new influenza virus that could pose a significant public health concern, a virus that has the transmissibility of seasonal influenza and the severity of H5N1,” he explained.
A senior administration official noted that there are an estimated 200,000 livestock workers in the U.S. Given the national flu shot uptake is around 47 percent, they said they would like the rate of immunization among farmworkers to be higher than that.
The other half of the funds will go toward outreach and education efforts for farm workers’ health and safety. This will include training sessions on the avian H5N1 virus and increasing access to testing and treatments.
The CDC has confirmed 13 bird flu cases in the U.S. since March of this year. Nine of the cases were detected in Colorado with three most recently confirmed last week. Officials described the symptoms as mild, with pink eye being the primary sign.
