FILE: USGS biologist science tech Brooke Hill releases a western sandpiper after testing it for avian influenza in 2006 in Sonoma, Calif.
Justin Sullivan/Getty ImagesA San Francisco resident is the second child in the United States to contract the viral bird flu, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed to SFGATE.
A CDC spokesperson said it’s unknown how the child was exposed to the contagious disease, but the risk to the general public is low. No additional cases were identified, and the San Francisco Department of Public Health is investigating the case.
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The child, who has fully recovered, experienced a fever and pink eye but didn’t need to be hospitalized, the department said in a news release. The first child in the country to be infected, an Alameda County resident who contracted the bird flu virus in November 2024, also had mild symptoms.
What is bird flu?
Bird flu is a disease caused by avian influenza A viruses, according to the CDC. The virus mostly spreads between birds and dairy cows, but there have been 67 human cases of bird flu nationwide and one death tied to the infection since 2024, CDC records show.
California has reported 38 cases, the most out of any state. Thirty-six of those infections came from dairy cattle; officials were not able to identify the sources of the other two.
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FILE: Mike Weber watches an employee clean a hen house at his egg farm in Petaluma, Calif., in 2024.
Terry Chea/Associated PressOne virus subtype called avian influenza A (H5) has been the strain causing recent outbreaks in humans in the U.S., the agency says. John Swartzberg, a health sciences professor at UC Berkeley, told SFGATE that the avian H5 strain has become more common in mammals other than birds.
“More recently, what’s been disturbing about bird flu is that one of the strains [H5] has learned how to infect other animals besides birds,” Swartzberg said. “For example, seals and other animals in the seal-like family, it’s been devastating to that population for the last two or three years.”
How can humans get bird flu?
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Those in direct contact with infected birds or animals are most likely to contract the virus. This could include livestock workers, veterinarians, hunters, dairy laboratory workers, food processing workers and slaughterhouse workers. People can also get it if they are exposed to surfaces with contaminated animal discharge or if they eat uncooked eggs or consume unpasteurized milk from infected cows.
FILE: In an aerial view, cows graze in a field on Dec. 19, 2024, in Petaluma, Calif.
Justin Sullivan/Getty ImagesThere hasn’t been any person-to-person spread of the virus in the U.S., according to the CDC. In other countries, there’s been limited person-to-person spread, which the CDC defines as only spreading to one or two people without spreading further.
Swartzberg said the only cases in the U.S. are what’s known as “primary transmission,” which would be person to cow, for example.
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“So it shows us that it can, on occasion, get into human beings, but it hasn’t figured out how to spread from the person it infects to another person,” he said.
Is bird flu more dangerous than the seasonal flu?
Swartzberg said since 2003, there have been 954 confirmed cases of the bird flu strain currently infecting humans, and about half of those people have died. That would put the historical mortality rate at approximately 50%, much higher than the human influenza mortality rate of about 0.1% in young, healthy people and 1% in people over 65.
But he added that because some cases of bird flu have likely gone unreported, the mortality rate could be much less. In any case, health officials are still studying the virus, and he pointed out that only one person has died in the current outbreak.
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“It’s not known why the mortality rate is so high with [bird flu] H5N1,” Swartzberg said.
FILE: USGS biologist science tech Brooke Hill and wetlands biologist Leonard Liu take a fecal sample from a western sandpiper as they test it for the highly pathogenic avian influenza in 2006 in Sonoma, Calif.
Justin Sullivan/Getty ImagesWhat are the symptoms?
Bird flu can cause symptoms ranging from no symptoms or moderate to severe symptoms. Most of the human cases have caused mild symptoms, according to the CDC.
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The mild symptoms include eye redness and irritation, cough, sore throat, runny or stuffy nose, body aches, headaches and fatigue. Some of the more moderate to severe symptoms include high fever, difficulty breathing, altered consciousness and seizures.
How do you prevent bird flu?
The San Francisco Department of Public Health said it recommends that people avoid contact with dead or sick birds.
The department also said people should not consume raw or unpasteurized milk or raw milk products, including cheese. Most milk and dairy products are pasteurized, though, which kills the virus, he said.
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FILE: Wetlands biologist Leonard Liu looks on as a flock of western sandpipers fly by at the Napa-Sonoma Marshes Wildlife Area on Aug. 16, 2006, in Sonoma, Calif.
Justin Sullivan/Getty ImagesCould bird flu cause a pandemic?
Though experts can’t predict if the bird flu virus could cause a pandemic, Swartzberg said that as of now, there’s been no evidence that the virus has mutated into learning how to spread from one human being to another.
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“As long as that’s the case, then we don’t have much to worry about,” he said. “But we don’t know whether this virus is going to be able to figure out how to transmit person to person, and once it affects a person … that’s disturbing, worrisome, and that’s why we’re doing things to try to prevent this from happening.”
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