H5N1 on Houston flight?

All over twitter that a human case was reported on a flight to Houston.....anyone see or confirm?

I "googled around" ;

[url]https://www.democraticunderground.com/113514034[/url] or https://www.democraticunderground.com/113514034 ;

Has anyone heard anything about this? Supposedly a traveler on a flight from Hong Kong to Houston (arrived Tuesday night) has been confirmed to be infected with avian flu. I just saw a TikTok video posted this afternoon by an ER doc about it who believed it is the H5N1 strain. The doc did not know if it was capable of spreading from person to person. I have not seen any news reports of this case so I am posting this here. A Reddit thread about this case was deleted due to a lack of proper sourcing which corresponds with my inability to find anything on it.

With several recent reports of avian flu jumping to mammals, this case is worth monitoring if it indeed is true.

I don't think any of us want to go through this again so hopefully this case is not transmitted from human to human.

DJ...2 replies basic (also) trying to get more info....Tuesday-night meaning tuesday-to wednesday so february 7-8 ? Enough time for testing....

[url]https://www.reddit.com/r/collapse/comments/10y8gnn/doctor_reporting_a_apparent_case_of_bird_flu_in/[/url] or https://www.reddit.com/r/collapse/comments/10y8gnn/doctor_reporting_a_apparent_case_of_bird_flu_in/ ;

Rule 5: Content must be properly sourced.

Articles, charts, or data-driven content must include a source either within the image or in a submission statement.

DJ....[url]https://www.thailandmedical.news/news/health-news-we-are-living-in-dark-times-governments-and-health-agencies-around-the-world-are-not-telling-us-the-truths-of-what-are-really-brewing[/url] or https://www.thailandmedical.news/news/health-news-we-are-living-in-dark-times-governments-and-health-agencies-around-the-world-are-not-telling-us-the-truths-of-what-are-really-brewing claiming there would be lots of human H5N1 cases ...but kept out of the news...

However their link [url]https://www.gov.uk/government/news/bird-flu-avian-influenza-latest-situation-in-england#full-publication-update-history[/url] or https://www.gov.uk/government/news/bird-flu-avian-influenza-latest-situation-in-england#full-publication-update-history is on H5N1 in (UK) birds...not humans...

TMN lost a lot of credit for me....

If the CDC had more info [url]https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/[/url] or https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/ I do think they would provide it....

DJ-My view is there was NO case of H5N1 on the Hong Kong-Houston flight...possibly another disease ? Communications are complex...a newsrelease there is NO H5N1 spread in humans could create unrest they try to avoid....Yes-there are human cases with H5N1 but-so far-as good as all of them may have infected bird links...(as far as I know...)

If there was a case of H5N1 -infected passenger on a flight risk of spread to other passengers/crew -in general- is considered to be low. 

[url]https://afludiary.blogspot.com/2023/01/ukhsa-risk-assessment-on-avian-h5n1-4th.html[/url] or https://afludiary.blogspot.com/2023/01/ukhsa-risk-assessment-on-avian-h5n1-4th.html ;

Updated 31 January 2023

Background

From 2003 until 25 November 2022, 868 confirmed human cases and 457 deaths due to avian influenza A(H5N1) had been reported to the World Health Organization (WHO) from 21 countries.[footnote 1]

Highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) A(H5N1) was first reported in the Far East, but is now enzootic in poultry across Asia and Africa. Although there have been very few human cases of A(H5N1) reported since 2015, outbreaks of HPAI A(H5N1) have occurred among poultry in several countries across Africa, America, Europe and Asia.[footnote 2]

The vast majority of human cases have reported contact with poultry and there is no reported evidence of sustained human-to-human transmission. No major changes have been detected in recently characterised viruses from human cases.

DJ,

You have a "pandemic triangle" ; Disease-transport-host...

In pandemics transport is the "weak spot". We should stop "virus-fly-for-free" massive global airtravel....We transport more then we want to transport....

Case definition for possible cases of A(H5N1)

• Clinical criteria fever ≥ 38°C

or 

• acute respiratory symptoms (cough, hoarseness, nasal discharge or congestion, shortness of breath, sore throat, wheezing or sneezing)

or

• other severe or life-threatening illness suggestive of an infectious process

Additionally, patients must fulfil a condition in either category 1 or 2 of the exposure criteria below.

DJ,

Symptoms of H5N1 look a lot like CoViD....testing is a basic way to control disease...Masks may prevent a lot of infections....So IF you want global massive air travel testing for diseases, masks would be usefull....

For climate reasons we should -also- limit airtravel to "essential only" (goods/HCW-ers to disaster areas...)...

DJ-So even if ther was a case of H5N1 on a Hong Kong-Houston flight the view is risk would be "low"....

Here is an extract from an interesting report on H5N1 and known family clusters in humans and it discusses H2H transmission. 

The entire report can be found here

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2857285/

and this is the extract that interested me the most. It's a study of 2 out of 31 family clusters of H5N1:

Highly pathogenic avian influenza A (HPAI) subtype H5N1 is repeatedly crossing the species barrier to humans. Since December 2003, a total of 291 cases of HPAI (H5N1) have been reported in humans, resulting in 172 deaths (i.e., 59% case-fatality ratio) in 12 countries, mostly in Southeast Asia (1). Among these cases, 31 family clusters have been documented, ranging in size from 2 to 8 family members. How many of these clusters are due to a common avian source and how many are due to human-to-human transmission are important facts to determine. Should one of these HPAI (H5N1) strains gain the capacity for sustained human-to-human transmission, the resulting outbreak, if not contained, would spread worldwide through the global transportation network more rapidly than adequate supplies of vaccine matched to the new variant could be manufactured and distributed (2,3). We analyzed data from 2 of the largest of the familial clusters to ascertain if human-to-human transmission took place, and if so, how transmissible the strain was.

Methods

May 2006 Human Avian Influenza Family Cluster, Indonesia

During late April and early May 2006, a cluster of 8 cases of HPAI (H5N1) was detected and investigated by the Indonesian public health surveillance system in northern Sumatra (4–6). All case-patients were members of the same extended family. Seven of them resided within 3 adjacent houses in the village of Kubu Sembilang. The remaining patient resided with his immediate family in the village of Kabanjahe (≈10 km away).

The index patient was a 37-year-old woman, thought to have been exposed to dead poultry and chicken fecal material before onset of illness. She also reportedly maintained a market stall that sold live chickens. Although her illness was not confirmed to have been caused by the (H5N1) avian influenza virus, her death on May 5, 2006, is suspected to be the result of HPAI (H5N1) infection because of her reported symptoms, illness progression, and prior contact with diseased or dead poultry.

Twenty members of her extended family are suspected to have been in contact with her, many during a family gathering on April 29, 2006 (7). At that time, she was manifesting symptoms (i.e., she had a heavy cough, was severely ill, and was prostrate). That night, 9 of these members slept in the same small room as she did (indicated by a black triangle in Appendix Figure 1). Of these 9 family members, 2 of her sons (15 and 17 years of age) and her 25-year-old brother, who lived in Kabanjhe, became ill in the next 3 weeks. The sons died. The brother was the only person from this family cluster to recover.

Of the remaining 11 family members, 4 became ill and died. The 29-year-old sister of the index patient, who lived in an adjacent house, became ill after she provided direct personal care to her ill sister (7). The 18-month-old daughter of this sister also became ill after she was in the presence of the index patient with her mother. The 10-year-old nephew of the index patient, who lived in the other house adjacent to hers, became ill after he attended the family gathering and frequently visited his aunt’s house. The nephew’s father became ill after he personally cared for his son. The possibility that HPAI (H5N1) was transmitted from the nephew to his father is also supported by genetic sequencing data (4). Though symptoms did not develop in the mother of the nephew, she was directly exposed to her husband during his illness. All case-patients, except for the index patient, were confirmed as influenza (H5N1) positive by PCR. The nephew’s mother was confirmed as influenza (H5N1) negative. As an intervention, 54 surviving relatives and close contacts were identified and placed under voluntary quarantine (7). All of these persons, except for pregnant women and infants, received oseltamivir prophylactically.

December 2005 Human Avian Influenza Family Cluster, Eastern Turkey

From December 18, 2005, (8) to January 15, 2006 (9), a cluster of 8 confirmed (H5N1) influenza cases was detected in Dogubayazit District in eastern Turkey (Appendix Figure 2) (10–13). These case-patients were among 21 members of 3 households located within 1.5 km of each other (14). All confirmed case-patients were hospitalized after onset of symptoms (9). Four of the confirmed case-patients died; the other 4 recovered (9). Ten of the remaining 14 household residents were hospitalized with avian influenza-like symptoms but were never confirmed to be (H5N1) infected (9). All but one of the hospitalized residents were children (6–15 years of age) (9).

Before onset of symptoms, 4 children from 1 household, 3 of whom had confirmed cases (including the index patient), were reported to have had close contact with the dead bodies of sick chickens (15). The 2 confirmed case-patients in the second household reportedly slaughtered a duck together on January 1, 2006, at the beginning of a die-off in the household’s flock (14). Two of the remaining confirmed case-patients lived in the third household and had no history of contact with sick or dying poultry. The remaining confirmed case occurred in a fourth residence located near the first household (10), but because we lacked information on the number of household members and the case-patient’s exposure history, we excluded it from these analyses. Most, if not all, of the 21 residents attended a dinner hosted by the family of the index patient on December 24, 2006, while he was symptomatic (8).

DJ, Flutrackers trying to get info....[url]https://flutrackers.com/forum/forum/the-pandemic-discussion-forum/968335-us-medical-doctor-reports-there-is-an-h5n1-avian-flu-case-in-houston-reportedly-traveled-from-hong-kong-february-9-2023-houston-health-department-denies-at-this-time?view=stream[/url] or https://flutrackers.com/forum/forum/the-pandemic-discussion-forum/968335-us-medical-doctor-reports-there-is-an-h5n1-avian-flu-case-in-houston-reportedly-traveled-from-hong-kong-february-9-2023-houston-health-department-denies-at-this-time?view=stream (latest activity) ;

The Twitter account is unverified, so to be fair to the licensed doctor whose information you found that seems to match the Twitter account, you could call the doctor directly and make sure the two people are the same.

Here's what the verified Houston Public Health department is saying currently:
https://twitter.com/HoustonHealth/st...28524675080193

@HoustonHealth

The @HoustonHealth Department as of right now doesn’t have any reports of an avian flu case. Our staff checked with all local hospitals and none report an avian flu case.

-

sharon sanders replied

Yesterday, 06:17 PM

DJ...there may be several people -in several positions- having more info. From the airline to Houston airport-workers, Houston/Texas/US - or Hong Kong/China healthcare people...Maybe also a hospital in Texas ???? Point is somebody could learn (s)he tested positive for H5N1 during the flight...lots of H5N1 infected people had NO symptoms....(and may be of low risk for others...). 

Maybe even the "positive for flu" story itself was unclear..."translated" into positive for H5N1 when a person tested positive for "flu" (and not for CoViD) ????

A story can start by a crew-member making a remark to another crew-member and go "its own way"...Without any proper source the story stays on "rumour-level"....