Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
US Confirms 1st Case Of Bird Flu In Pig
A pig in Oregon has tested positive for the H5N1 bird flu virus, the Agriculture Department said Wednesday. It's the first time the virus has been detected in swine in the United States. Test results are pending for two other pigs found on the farm in Crook County, Oregon, the USDA said, while two others tested negative. ... The case is concerning as pigs can become infected with both bird and human viruses at the same time, which can give rise to mutated strains that can more easily infect humans. Officials said there are no concerns about the safety of the nation's pork supply. (Lovelace Jr. and Edwards, 10/30)
The U.S. Department of Agriculture will soon begin testing bulk raw milk across the country for bird flu, a significant expansion of the agency's efforts to stifle the rapid spread of the virus, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack told Reuters. The move comes after livestock and veterinary groups pushed the USDA to strengthen its current surveillance approach, calling it inadequate to contain the virus, according to state records and industry documents reviewed by Reuters. (Douglas, 10/30)
On E. coli, flu, and pneumonia 鈥
Federal officials on Wednesday reported more cases of E. coli poisoning among people who ate at McDonald鈥檚, as government investigators seeking the outbreak鈥檚 source identified an 鈥渙nion grower of interest鈥 in Washington state. The Food and Drug Administration said 90 people across 13 states have fallen ill in the outbreak, up from 75 at the end of last week. The number of people hospitalized increased by five, to 27 people. One death has been tied to the outbreak. (Perrone, 10/30)
More than 100,000 people are hospitalized and 4,900 people die from flu complications annually in the U.S. Vaccines, which target last year鈥檚 dominant flu strains, can help you avert serious illness or death. The study published Tuesday in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report showed the risks seasonal flu still poses, especially to people who haven't been vaccinated. (Cuevas, 10/30)
A multistate study of publicly insured children diagnosed as having pneumonia found that one in five did not receive antibiotics, researchers reported yesterday in JAMA Network Open. But while children who didn't receive antibiotics had slightly higher rates of treatment failure than those who did, severe outcomes were rare regardless of antibiotic treatment, the researchers found. (Dall, 10/30)
On the spread of mpox 鈥
The United Kingdom today reported its first imported clade 1b mpox case, a patient who recently traveled to countries in Africa that are experiencing infection in community settings. In a statement, the UK鈥檚 Health Security Agency (HSA) said the case was detected in London and that the patient has been transferred to the Royal Free Hospital鈥檚 High Consequence Infectious Diseases unit. (Schnirring, 10/30)
A World Health Organization (WHO)聽analysis of global mpox surveillance from 1958 to 2024 reveals highly mobile clade 1 viruses in Central Africa, sustained human-to-human spread of clade 2b lineage A in the Eastern Mediterranean, distinct mutations that can distinguish between sustained transmission among humans with that among animals, and unique clade 1 sequences from Sudan that suggest local circulation in Eastern Africa. For the study, published last week in Nature Medicine, the team extracted 6,585 mpox sequences from GenBank and 3,914 from GISAID from 64 countries from the past 67 years. (Van Beusekom, 10/30)