The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has asked local jurisdictions to make personal protective equipment (PPE) available to workers on dairy and poultry farms and slaughterhouses in response to recent outbreaks of H5N1 in poultry and dairy cattle.
Specifically, CDC asked state health departments to work with their state agriculture department counterparts and partners in communities, such as farmworker organizations, that can help coordinate and facilitate PPE distributions. CDC Principal Deputy Director Nirav D. Shah recommended states prioritize distribution of PPE to farms with herds in which a cow was confirmed to be infected with H5N1, noting that some states have already distributed PPE to dairy farms. Jurisdictions were asked to use existing PPE stockpiles for this effort.
Although CDC’s assessment of the immediate risk to the U.S. public from avian influenza remains low, Shah highlighted the importance of states acting now to protect people with work exposures, who may be at higher risk of infection. CDC has actively engaged with state and local health departments, farmworker organizations and public health veterinarians since first learning about the outbreak of H5N1 in dairy cattle herds. CDC is also sharing information with staff at federally qualified health centers, who may care for farmworkers to help ensure that these staff are aware of the importance of PPE and the options to obtain it.
Only one person is known to have contracted H5N1 after contact with dairy cows presumed to be infected with the virus.
Shah reiterated the agency’s commitment to support state health officials, who are conducting the on-the-ground public health response to this outbreak.
Detections of H5N1 in dairy cattle have occurred in nine states: Colorado, South Dakota, North Carolina, Texas, Michigan, New Mexico, Idaho, Kansas and Ohio.