California investigating possible case of bird flu in child who drank raw milk

By Jamie Gumbrecht and Brenda Goodman, CNN

(CNN) — California health officials are investigating a possible case of bird flu in a child who became ill after drinking raw milk, Marin County Public Health said on Tuesday.

The child went to a local emergency department in November with fever and vomiting after drinking raw milk and tested positive for influenza A, the county said. More testing is underway at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to determine whether the child had H5N1 bird flu. So far, initial tests conducted by the agency have been negative for H5 flu, according to a source close to the investigation, but the testing hasn’t been completed.

The child recovered and no family members became ill.

California health officials have been warning about the risks of raw milk and other raw dairy products since the virus was identified in products last month. While pasteurized milk goes through a heating process that kills harmful pathogens, raw milk is not pasteurized and can carry listeria, campylobacter, salmonella, E. coli and bird flu virus. Distribution from Fresno-based Raw Farm was halted in November after bird flu was identified in milk products from store shelves, dairy storage and bottling sites. Raw Farm has said it has paused production while its herd is under quarantine.

Bird flu has continued to spread in wild birds, poultry and dairy cattle around the United States since spring. There’s no evidence of person-to-person spread but scientists worry the virus can mutate to spread more easily among people. The US Department of Agriculture announced last week a plan to expand testing of milk bound for pasteurization in order to better track the spread of bird flu.

Fifty-eight bird flu cases have been confirmed in humans in the United States so far this year, including 32 in California. Most are linked to farm workers who have been in contact with sick animals. California also reported last month the first US case identified in a child; the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Tuesday that the virus from that case resembled those previously detected in humans, cattle and poultry in California but it’s not clear how the child was exposed.

In an alert to health-care providers last week, the California Department of Health said doctors should consider bird flu in people with acute respiratory symptoms or conjunctivitis who’ve had recent exposure to animals with bird flu or who have recently consumed raw dairy products. Bird flu symptoms in humans include typical flu-like symptoms such as eye redness, sore throat, runny nose, cough, diarrhea, vomiting, body aches, fatigue, trouble swallowing or fever.

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