Bird Flu News and Research

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Blood cells linked to long-lasting vaccine immunity

When children receive their second measles-mumps-rubella vaccine, around the time they start kindergarten, they gain protection against all three viruses for all or most of their lives.

2 Jan 2025

Public health experts outline critical steps in handling HPAI H5N1 spread

Highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza A virus (HPAI H5N1) remains a low risk to the general public, and public health experts in the United States believe that available treatments and vaccines, as well as those in development, are sufficient to prevent severe disease.

2 Jan 2025

How America lost control of the bird flu, setting the stage for another pandemic

Keith Poulsen's jaw dropped when farmers showed him images on their cellphones at the World Dairy Expo in Wisconsin in October.

20 Dec 2024

Pregnant women must be prioritized in pandemic vaccination programs

The vast majority of women who contract bird flu during pregnancy and their unborn baby will die from the virus, according to a new study. And the findings stress the importance of early inclusion of pregnant women in public health vaccination programs during pandemics.

19 Dec 2024

New design could make seasonal influenza vaccinations more broadly effective

Stanford Medicine scientists have designed a way to make our seasonal influenza vaccinations more broadly effective and possibly to protect us from new flu variants with pandemic potential.

19 Dec 2024

Scientists detect rare H5N1 avian flu strain in Australian child after travel to India

A 2.5-year-old returning to Australia from India was infected with a reassortant H5N1 virus, revealing genetic mixing between avian influenza clades and gaps in South Asian surveillance.

18 Dec 2024

Trump’s picks for top health jobs not just team of rivals but ‘team of opponents’

Many of President-elect Donald Trump's candidates for federal health agencies have promoted policies and goals that put them at odds with one another or with Trump's choice to run the Department of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., setting the stage for internal friction over public health initiatives.

17 Dec 2024

Raw milk may carry hidden risks of flu transmission

Raw milk, hailed by some as a natural and nutritious alternative to pasteurized dairy, may come with hidden dangers, according to a new Stanford University study.

14 Dec 2024

How measles, whooping cough, and worse could roar back on RFK Jr.’s watch

The availability of safe, effective covid vaccines less than a year into the pandemic marked a high point in the 300-year history of vaccination, seemingly heralding an age of protection against infectious diseases.

6 Dec 2024

KFF Health News' 'What the Health?': Public health and the dairy cow in the room

Public health, one of the more misunderstood concepts in the health world, is about the health of entire populations, rather than individuals.

26 Nov 2024

As California taps pandemic stockpile for bird flu, officials keep close eye on spending

California public health officials are dipping into state and federal stockpiles to equip up to 10,000 farmworkers with masks, gloves, goggles, and other safety gear as the state confirms at least 21 human cases of bird flu as of early November.

14 Nov 2024

Exclusive: Emails reveal how health departments struggle to track human cases of bird flu

Bird flu cases have more than doubled in the country within a few weeks, but researchers can't determine why the spike is happening because surveillance for human infections has been patchy for seven months.

25 Oct 2024

KFF Health News' 'What the Health?': Less than two weeks to go

As abortion and other reproductive issues gain more prominence in the looming election, some Republicans are trying to moderate their anti-abortion positions, particularly in states where access to the procedure remains politically popular.

24 Oct 2024

Global experts gather in Brisbane for scientific meeting dedicated to influenza

More than 1,400 experts have visited Brisbane for the world's only scientific meeting dedicated to influenza.

4 Oct 2024

H5N1 bird flu is mutating fast and jumping to mammals - could the next pandemic be here?

Researchers reveal how H5N1 viruses rapidly adapted to mammals through genetic reassortment and specific mutations, raising concerns over potential pandemic risks. Evidence from mink, marine mammals, and dairy cattle shows mammal-to-mammal transmission.

25 Sep 2024

Review highlights failures in global control strategies for bird flu transmission

A review of sustained mammal-to-mammal bird flu transmission in diverse species, led by The Pirbright Institute, shows global control strategies are not working.

24 Sep 2024

Seabirds' food-stealing behavior may facilitate spread of deadly avian flu

The deadly H5N1 avian influenza virus, which has killed millions of birds worldwide since 2021 – and in rare cases can be transmitted to humans – may be spread through the food-stealing behaviour of some seabirds.

16 Sep 2024

With only gloves to protect them, farmworkers say they tend sick cows amid bird flu

In early August, farmworkers gathered under a pavilion at a park here for a picnic to celebrate Farmworker Appreciation Day. One sign that this year was different from the others was the menu: Beef fajitas, tortillas, pico de gallo, chips, beans — but no chicken.

27 Aug 2024

Universal flu vaccine candidate provides protection against severe infection in animal models

Annual flu vaccines protect against severe infection, but they vary in efficacy and may not match the most virulent strains of the season.

23 Aug 2024

Study reveals how avian flu adapts to mammalian cells

In recent years, public health measures, surveillance, and vaccination have helped bring about significant progress in reducing the impact of seasonal flu epidemics, caused by human influenza viruses A and B.

19 Aug 2024