H5N1 SPOTREP #5

November 20, 2024 / TLP:CLEAR

Healthcare Ready is MONITORING for this event. We are monitoring potential concerns for supply chain disruptions and impacts on healthcare services on our Alert Hub.

Contents

Situation Overview and Key Updates
Treatments, Vaccines, and Testing

*Updated information has been included in orange text.

Situation Overview and Key Updates

As of November 20, according to the CDC, there have been 53 reported cases of H5N1 this year.
- In California, 27 cases were reported as exposure to cattle. The most recent case was reported on November 18.
- In Oregon, their first case was reported as exposure to poultry.
- In Colorado, one case was reported as exposure to cattle and nine were reported as exposure to poultry.
- In Michigan, two cases were reported as exposure to cattle.
- In Texas, one case was reported as exposure to cattle.
- In Washington, 11 cases were reported as exposure to poultry as of November 20.
- In Missouri, one case was reported as unknown exposure which is concerning however people who were in close proximity to that individual were not infected.
As of November 20, there have been 49 states with outbreaks in poultry and 15 states with outbreaks in cattle.
- The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) developed a map that shows the number of HPAI confirmed cases in livestock herds around the US. That map can be found here.
- In the last 30 days, there have been 217 new confirmed cases in cattle in 3 different states – California, Utah, and Idaho. California makes up 202 of those new confirmed cases within the last 30 days.
As of November 14, California public health officials have begun pulling supplies from the state and federal stockpiles to equip farm workers and mitigate the spread of H5N1.
- The Strategic National Stockpile (SNS) also maintains a large inventory of PPE for farm workers that states can request if their supplies, from their own state stockpiles, are depleted or unavailable.
CDC continues to state that the immediate risk to the general public for H5N1 is low, however the risk for people with exposure to infected animals remains high. Person to person spread of H5N1 has not been detected in the US thus far.

Treatments, Vaccines, and Testing

On November 12, CDC released an updated interim guidance for employers to identify work tasks that pose an increased risk to workers potentially exposed to H5N1.
- This includes workers such as poultry and dairy farmers/workers, dairy laboratory workers, food processing workers, slaughterhouse workers, and others.
There have been challenges in tracking cases amongst farm workers due to the lack of reporting mechanisms. Additionally, some farm workers have limited access to healthcare which can complicate the monitoring process.
As part of a CDC initiative, more than 100,000 doses of seasonal influenza vaccines will be allocated to 12 states where cattle have tested positive for H5N1. Those doses are allocated specifically for farm workers to prevent the spread of influenza in their respective communities.
The CDC is collaborating with pharmacy networks (eTrueNorth and Walgreens) to provide free testing of symptomatic individuals in California to increase testing for seasonal flu and H5N1 testing if needed.
ASPR’s Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) has taken action to bolster the US preparedness against H5N1 by granting $72 million to CSL Seqirus, Sanofi, and GSK to complete the next steps in influenza A(H5) vaccine manufacturing.

If you become aware of situations that may adversely affect healthcare supply or patient care from this event, or if you would like to request assistance, please contact the Healthcare Ready Support Team at Alerts@HealthcareReady.org or call (866) 247-2694.

H5N1 SPOTREP #5

Situation Overview and Key Updates

Treatments, Vaccines, and Testing

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