Four poultry workers in Colorado have been diagnosed with bird flu, health officials confirmed Sunday.
The new cases bring the U.S. total to nine since the first human case of the current outbreak was detected in 2022, also in a Colorado poultry worker. Eight of the nine were reported this year.
Their illnesses were relatively mild — reddened and irritated eyes and common respiratory infection symptoms like fever, chills, coughing, sore throat and runny nose. None were hospitalized, officials said. The other U.S. cases have also been mild.
A fifth person with symptoms is undergoing testing, but those results are not back yet, officials said. The workers were culling poultry at a farm in northeast Colorado, according to state health officials. All had direct contact with infected birds.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has sent a nine-person team to Colorado to help in the investigation, at the state’s request, CDC officials said.
This cases earlier this year were among dairy farm workers in Michigan, Texas and Colorado.
As of Friday, the H5N1 virus has been confirmed in 152 dairy herds in 12 states, according to the U.S. Agriculture Department. Hundreds of commercial poultry flocks in more than 30 states have reported H5N1 or other types of bird flu.
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