Two dairy workers in California detected with bird flu

SACRAMENTO, California: Health officials said this week that the 15th and 16th human cases of the bird flu this year were detected, this time from the dairy sector in California.

The latest cases were found in workers who had contact with infected cattle in California's Central Valley, where more than 50 herds have been affected since August. The workers developed eye redness known as conjunctivitis and had mild symptoms in an ongoing outbreak affecting the nation's dairy cows.

California health officials said the workers were employed at different farms, and there is no known link between the two cases, suggesting that they were infected through animal contact.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed the positive test results, the first for California. CDC officials said the new cases were "not unexpected," and the risk to the public remains low.

More than 250 dairy herds have been infected in 14 states across the U.S. since the outbreak of H5N1 avian influenza was confirmed in March.

Before 2024, one case of bird flu was detected in a person, a Colorado poultry worker who fell ill in 2022. Most cases this year have been detected in workers who had contact with cattle or poultry in Colorado, Michigan, and Texas. A person in Missouri was also infected, but that person had no known contact with animals, and the source of that illness has not been determined.