At least 60 reports of Lyme disease so far as Ontario enters tick season
Peak tick season is only just beginning but reports of bites – and tick-borne illnesses – are already higher than normal in Ontario.
A U.S. farmworker who caught bird flu after working with dairy cattle in Texas appears to be the first known case of mammal-to-human transmission of the virus, a new study shows.
The dairy worker sought care in late March after developing painful red, swollen, weeping eyes with burst blood vessels. He had no fever, however, and his lungs were clear, according to a letter about the case that was published in the New England Journal of Medicine on Friday.
He reported no contact with sick or dead birds or other animals, but he did have repeated direct close contact with dairy cows in the same part of the state with other infected herds.
Even though the man didn’t become seriously ill, his case is important because it confirms that humans can be infected with H5N1 after contact with cows. At the same time, it also leaves critical questions unanswered about a virus that the study authors said has “pandemic potential,” and it illustrates how hard it will be to track the infection in this vulnerable population of workers, where testing positive for an infectious disease might mean losing days of work and pay.
“For farmworkers specifically, certainly these are folks that are that are living in a state of economic desperation, and what they’re not going to do is, they’re not going to test for something if they don’t have paid sick leave, because they cannot afford to be sent home and told to stay home and not work,” said Elizabeth Strater, director of strategic campaigns for United Farm Workers.
Strater says UFW, like other groups, has heard rumors that there are dairy workers who are sick but don’t want to be tested, but she said it’s nothing that they’re able to confirm
Health officials in Texas said they did test other sick dairy workers, including some with red eyes, but they turned out to have other illnesses, not bird flu.
“The people tested volunteered to be tested,” said Lara Anton, senior press officer with the Texas Department of State Health Services.
“It’s likely there were other people with symptoms who did not want to be tested so we cannot say with absolute certainty that no one else contracted H5N1. We can say for sure some of the people on dairy farms tested positive for other respiratory viruses that are commonly circulating in the human population,” Anton said.
In the case of the man who did test positive for bird flu, he took antiviral medications and recovered without any lasting problems, and his close family members received the drugs as a precaution, the letter says.
Swabs of the patient’s eyes and lungs revealed something interesting, too: His eyes were teeming with the H5N1 virus, but there was hardly any virus in his lungs. That could mean the worker was infected through his eyes – either by rubbing them with contaminated hands or through splashes of contaminated milk – rather than through his lungs, and the virus never migrated there, or that the virus couldn’t get a foothold in his lungs because it was adapted primarily to infect birds, not cells in the human airway.
The letter on the case was written by researchers at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention along with doctors at the Texas Department of State Health Services and researchers at the Texas Tech Bioterrorism Response Laboratory.
Health officials said they couldn’t do further investigation of how the man was infected because “epidemiological investigations were not able to be conducted at the farm” where he worked. They were also unable to test other workers at the same farm.
That kind of testing is critical to answer questions about how the worker became infected, whether others were being infected and if so, for how long they were infected and what kind of symptoms they had, if they had any at all.
The CDC is looking for farms that will allow it to conduct such a detailed study.
“Understanding the current avian flu outbreak among dairy cattle is a vital priority to help protect human health,” the agency said in a statement to CNN. “Discussions are under way with farms in multiple jurisdictions to participate in CDC-led epidemiological studies. In the meantime, states continue to test symptomatic farm workers and monitor those who have been exposed to infected animals. CDC also continues to closely monitor a robust, nationwide flu surveillance system. To date, it has not detected any unusual flu activity.”
At a news briefing Friday, White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre said the administration was monitoring the situation “very closely and taking this very seriously.”
Peak tick season is only just beginning but reports of bites – and tick-borne illnesses – are already higher than normal in Ontario.
Pope Francis apologized Tuesday after he was quoted using a vulgar term about gay men to reaffirm the Catholic Church's ban on gay priests.
Well into spring, some parts of Canada could experience a wintry comeback, while other areas are bracing for severe thunderstorms, according to local forecasts.
The 13-year-old sister of a young man killed in the attack on her family’s Mississauga restaurant in 2021 took the stand in a Brampton courthouse on Monday to describe the terrifying moments of coming under fire.
Kevin McCallister’s childhood home has hit the market for US$5.25 million. At just over 9,000 square feet, the house from the 'Home Alone' movie was last sold in 2012 for $1,585,000.
Emergency services in the town of Rigaud, Que. are investigating after a tornado touched down shortly after 5:30 p.m. on Friday.
The actor Richard Dreyfuss showed up in a dress at a 'Jaws'-themed event in Massachusetts, where the blockbuster 1975 movie he starred in was shot, and then proceeded to make demeaning remarks about women, LGBTQ2S+ people and diversity.
Some Canadians are seeing their credit card balances grow as the cost-of-living crisis and higher interest rates eat into household budgets, a new report shows.
Slowed or interrupted travel, the passing of goods and significantly restricted borders should be expected if Canadian border workers take upcoming strike action.
A man's daring rescue of a newborn wild foal that was trapped after falling down a steep embankment was caught on video over the weekend.
A Winnipeg pinball wizard is heading to the granddaddy of them all – the IFPA World Pinball Championship.
It’s the chance of a lifetime for a group of Ottawa athletes who are getting ready to represent Team Canada at the World Junior Ultimate championships in the United Kingdom.
Parishioners at Holy Trinity Anglican Church are praying for a monetary miracle, as their historic place of worship could collapse at any moment.
A Saskatchewan man made it to the summit of Mount Everest earlier this month.
IAMGOLD’s Cote Gold open pit mine, located off Highway 144 between Timmins and Sudbury, had its official ribbon-cutting ceremony this week as production ramps up.
When one is extended an invitation to the Royal Garden Party in London, England, there's undoubtedly no shortage of pomp and circumstance. Barrie, Ont. natives Megan Kirk Chang and her husband Brandon experienced just that as they entered the prestigious event hosted at Buckingham Palace on Tuesday.
An unlikely celebrity emerged from social media to cheer on the Edmonton Oilers as they face the Dallas Stars tonight in Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals.
The proprietors of Regina's sole discount theatre are aware they're carrying on a significant legacy.