The US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention has announced that a man in Colorado is the first human in the US to test positive for bird flu.
The case comes as the H5N1 bird influenza tears through the US, posing a low risk to humans while leading to the deaths of millions of birds. Some of the birds have died from the disease, but the vast majority of them are being culled to curb the spread.
The patient, who is younger than 40, was involved in the culling of poultry at a commercial farm in Colorado’s Montrose County. He is an inmate at a state correctional facility in Delta County and was working with poultry as part of a pre-release employment programme.
Members of the response team were all given PPE while working on the farm, and the affected flock has been euthanized.
The patient has since recovered after reporting fatigue that lasted a few days as his only symptom. He was treated with oseltamivir, an antiviral influenza medication commonly sold under the Tamiflu brand.
The virus was detected on a single nasal specimen and could have been present in the patient’s nose without causing infection, according to a statement from Colorado authorities.