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Five new cases of H5 bird flu among poultry workers reported on July 15 added to the urgency of scientific and legislative action to address pandemic preparedness.
The “current risk assessment for the general public remains low,” the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention emphasized in a press release. The new infections occurred at a Colorado poultry farm, where workers were culling birds after the H5 bird flu virus was detected among the flock.
While there is still no evidence of human-to-human transmission, the federal government is preparing for widespread vaccination in case H5 bird flu becomes transmissible among people. Many are calling for legislative action, as well.
Now up to 10 human infections
Four of the five workers had their positive tests confirmed by the CDC, and a sample from the fifth was awaiting testing by the CDC to confirm the positive test result by state officials, said a July 14 release from the Colorado Department of Public Health & Environment.
“The workers were culling poultry at a farm in northeast Colorado and exhibited mild symptoms, including conjunctivitis (pink eye) and common respiratory infection symptoms. None were hospitalized,” the release said. No further tests were planned.
If the fifth case from the Colorado poultry farm is confirmed, it would double the total of reported H5 bird flu human infections in the United States to 10, with nine reported since April of this year. The infections have all apparently been linked to close contact with either infected cattle or infected poultry. This would indicate the virus has not mutated to a point where it can be passed between people.
The CDC is monitoring the virus to contain the spread from animals to people and to watch for signs that the virus could spread between people, creating the potential for a pandemic.
“Fortunately, pandemic influenza is a place where there is considerable infrastructure because of the great work that’s already been done to address seasonal flu and previous pandemics,” Phyllis Arthur, EVP and Head of Healthcare Policy and Programs at the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO), has said. “The vaccine industry can quickly work with government leaders to start developing vaccines against a novel pandemic flu strain mainly because we have this infrastructure and an existing public-private partnership.”
Are we prepared for a vaccination campaign?
The U.S. already has a stockpile of vaccines to protect humans against H5 bird flu. The CDC is working to ensure that vaccine makers are matching the latest circulating versions of the virus, Bio.News has reported.
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in May ordered the manufacture of 4.8 million doses of H5 bird flu vaccines for potential use to protect at-risk farm workers. HHS asked CSL Seqirus, a BIO member company, to use a formula targeting a virus closely matching the current H5N1 to produce finished vaccines, Reuters reported.
Work on an mRNA vaccine is under way. Moderna announced funding from the U.S. Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) to support the continued development of an H5 bird flu vaccine for humans.
“mRNA vaccine technology offers advantages in efficacy, speed of development, and production scalability and reliability in addressing infectious disease outbreaks, as demonstrated during the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Stéphane Bancel, Chief Executive Officer of Moderna, another BIO member company.
“Currently available vaccines rely on inactivated strains of viruses grown in chicken eggs, which are cheap, but slow, to produce,” according to Nature. Vaccines produced with mRNA technology “are more expensive but quicker to manufacture, and their formulation can be updated to target emerging strains.”
Why policymakers need to pass pandemic preparedness legislation
As Project BioShield nears its 20th anniversary, BIO has called for the reauthorization of the Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Act (PAHPA), which was born from Project BioShield to bolster our defenses against the next generation of global health threats.
In an interview with Bio.News, former Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC), a key architect of Project BioShield, noted that Congress has often been slow to move on funding pandemic protections, including BARDA, which is now supporting the H5 bird flu vaccine development by Moderna.
BARDA “was on life support three different times because congressional memories are about two years long—they fit in between election cycles,” recalled Sen. Burr, calling for vigilance in the face of this new potential threat. “Bird flu is probably a great example where the government is going to have to assess whether they were asleep at the helm.”
