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State health officials have identified a third possible case of bird flu in a human, according to an announcement Saturday. The suspected case involves an individual from the Central Valley who had contact with infected dairy cattle, according to the California Department of Health. Confirmation of H5N1 avian flu presence is pending results from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Vaziri, 10/5)

Federal scientists are closely studying H5N1 genetic sequences from California dairy workers in search of any dangerous mutations that may make the virus, called avian flu or bird flu, more skilled at jumping from animals to people — then spreading. “It can tell us how the virus is evolving,” said Stanford infectious disease expert Dr. Abraar Karan. “It is a window into what is going on.” (Krieger, 10/5)

A total of seven people who were in close contact with a bird flu patient in Missouri developed symptoms, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday, but it remains unclear whether these represent cases of human-to-human spread of the virus. Antibody blood test results, which will come back later this month, officials said, are needed to answer that question. Since most of the seven people weren’t tested for bird flu, it’s not yet known whether any of them were infected with the virus or another pathogen. (Lovelace Jr., 10/4)

GSK, Sanofi, and CSL Ltd have secured $72 million from the U.S. government to ramp up production of bird flu vaccines, a health official said on Friday during a press briefing. The move comes as a multi-state outbreak among livestock and poultry has caused human illnesses and infected more than 254 herds in 14 states since March, according to government data. The companies will use the funds to fill vials and pre-filled syringes so that doses can be ready to distribute if needed, said David Boucher, director of Infectious Disease Preparedness and Response for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (10/4)

Officials are looking into what appears to be the first case of locally-acquired dengue in San Diego County’s history. The illness appeared in an Escondido resident who had not recently traveled anywhere that the mosquito-borne illness is common. (Binkowski, 10/6)

Discovery of more dangerous and highly aggressive Aedes aegypti mosquitos near a San Jose cemetery has Santa Clara County officials imploring residents to remove standing water and give access to pest-control crews so the insects don’t becoming a permanent menace. The invasive mosquitos can transmit dengue, yellow fever and other serious diseases, and also threaten “our way of life” because of their voracious feeding on human blood can take place in the middle of the day, unlike the state’s native mosquitos, the county warned in a Friday press release. (Baron, 10/6)

Two additional human cases of West Nile virus have been confirmed in women in Massachusetts, raising the state’s total this year to 15, state health officials said Friday. A woman in her 60s was exposed to the mosquito-borne illness in Middlesex County, and a woman in her 70s was probably exposed while out-of-state, according to a statement from the state Department of Public Health. (McDonald, 10/4)

Congolese authorities on Saturday began vaccination against mpox, nearly two months after the disease outbreak that spread from Congo to several African countries and beyond was declared a global emergency by the World Health Organization. The 265,000 doses donated to Congo by the European Union and the U.S. were rolled out in the eastern city of Goma in North Kivu province, where hospitals and health workers have been struggled to contain the new and possibly more infectious strain of mpox. (Alonga, 10/5)

Rwanda said on Sunday it had begun administering vaccine doses against the Marburg virus to try to combat an outbreak of the Ebola-like disease in the east African country, where it has so far killed 12 people. "The vaccination is starting today immediately," Health Minister Sabin Nsanzimana said at a news conference in the capital Kigali. (10/6)