California Declares State Of Emergency Over Bird Flu

LOS ANGELES, Dec 19 (Bernama-Xinhua) -- California Governor Gavin Newsom on Wednesday declared a state of emergency in response to an outbreak of Avian Influenza A (H5N1), commonly known as bird flu, which has infected 34 people in the Golden State, Xinhua reported.

According to the governor's office, the declaration followed the detection of cases in dairy cows on farms in Southern California, "signalling the need to further expand monitoring and strengthen the coordinated statewide approach to contain and mitigate the spread of the virus.

To date, no person-to-person transmission of bird flu has been detected in California, and nearly all infected individuals were exposed to infected cattle, a press release from the governor's office stated. It added that the state has already established the largest testing and monitoring system in the country to address the outbreak.

As of Wednesday, the H5N1 virus has spread to dairy cattle in 16 states, following its first confirmed detection in Texas and Kansas in March 2024, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC). 

There have been 61 human cases of H5N1 bird flu nationwide since April, with the CDC on Wednesday confirming that a person in Louisiana had been hospitalised with a "severe" case of the disease.

Bird flu was first detected in the United States in wild birds in South Carolina in January 2022 and in California in July 2022.

-- BERNAMA-XINHUA