Since March 29, there has been a major dairy cow outbreak with 86 infected herds across 11 U.S. states. Why have only three human cases been confirmed? Mainly because state and federal authorities have not actively or systematically looked for new cases of H5N1 infection in humans. Without a goal-oriented governmental response to the H5N1 outbreak — and a public health surveillance strategy that is aligned with these larger goals — the U.S. will not understand the true extent and implications of the outbreak, failing to protect its citizens and the rest of the world from a very real pandemic threat.
In public health (or epidemiological terms), a single case of H5N1 infection in a human constitutes an outbreak, since it is more than what would otherwise be expected. Any human outbreak of bird flu should be thoroughly investigated and tracked.
In order to address the outbreak properly, the government response must focus on several key areas.
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