The first case of a person to contract bird flu after no known contact with animals is raising questions about the possibility of human-to-human transmission and highlighting the complicated relationship between states and federal agencies in outbreak response.An extensive investigation into the case of a patient in Missouri who was hospitalized on 22 August has revealed no links to animals, officials at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) told reporters on Thursday.Two contacts of the patient also fell ill around the same time, the agency revealed in a report the next day.A health worker developed mild symptoms but tested negative for the flu. More troublingly, a household member also developed symptoms on the same day as the patient – but that person was not tested for the flu.There’s a blood test to check for antibodies to H5N1, a highly pathogenic avian influenza, that may be done as soon as 10 days after infection, but antibody testing has not started,…
Date:
