News
Paula Lindo
Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) epidemic reaction group head Dr Sylvain Aldighieri said the risk being postured by break outs of the H5N1 (bird influenza or bird influenza) infection in the area of the Americas is the prospective transmission from animal to human.
Speaking throughout a virtual PAHO media conference on Thursday, Aldighieri said the area of the Americas is plainly dealing with an extremely rapidly developing scenario relating to the spread of H5N1.
“We have signals and reports from South, Central, and North America relating to cases and break outs in animal populations. In this context, PAHO together with other companies is keeping an eye on the scenario in both sectors, human and animal health.
“Regarding animal health, we have to ensure there is strengthened surveillance in both the production sector, including the farms, and in wildlife. I’d like to really stress the need to focus our work on the production sector, surveillance in farms, including potential cases in workers of these farms.”
He said the risk of the infection is not associated with a single particular stress or genotype.
“We are clearly in the context where both the Health Ministry and the Agriculture Ministry have to work together to track the spread and detect changes in patterns of transmission, including potential cases in the human population. The new tools expanded during the response to covid19, related to genomic sequencing, which are key for the characterisation of the virus, including detection of mutations and reassortment of genes, that can trigger the adaptation of a new genotype to the human population, will be key here.”
