Health
Bird flu concerns mount as California reports more human cases
Concerns about bird flu — officially known as avian influenza A (H5) — continue to mount, particularly in California.
As of Oct. 14, the state has had six confirmed and five possible human cases of bird flu, according to the California Department of Public Health (CDPH).
All of the affected individuals reportedly had direct contact with infected cattle at nine dairy farms, the department stated.
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The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is conducting tests to confirm the five possible cases.
All the individuals experienced “mild symptoms,” including eye redness or discharge (conjunctivitis), the CDPH stated. None were hospitalized.
As of Oct. 14, California has had six confirmed and five possible human cases of bird flu. (iStock)
There is not a concern at this point about human-to-human transmission, according to the agency.
“Given the amount of exposure to infected cows, evidence continues to suggest only animal-to-human spread of the virus in California,” said the CDPH statement.
“Evidence continues to suggest only animal-to-human spread of the virus.”
“Additionally, based on CDC’s genomic sequencing of three California bird flu cases, there is no evidence to suggest an increased ability for the virus to infect or spread between people and no known reduced susceptibility to antiviral medications.”
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As of Oct. 15, there were a total of 20 confirmed human cases of bird flu in the U.S., according to the CDC.
Colorado and California have had the most cases, with others reported in Michigan, Missouri and Texas, the same source stated.
Getting the flu vaccine also makes it less likely that someone will end up with a suspected case of avian flu as a result of having the seasonal flu and a history of animal exposure, an expert said. (Jeff Kowalsky/AFP via Getty Images)
Roughly half of those were linked to exposure to infected cattle and the other half to infected poultry.
“To a large extent, the higher numbers we are seeing in California, and previously in Colorado, are due to more aggressive monitoring and case finding efforts in those states, rather than necessarily reflecting a larger burden of disease,” Shira Doron, M.D., chief infection control officer at Tufts Medicine Health System in Boston, told Fox News Digital.
“Seasonal flu cases will be rising soon, and we will need to distinguish quickly between regular flu and avian flu, especially in animal workers,” an expert noted. (iStock)
“California has one of the more comprehensive programs to find avian influenza in its cattle herds, and when they find sick cows, they monitor exposed health care workers,” she went on.
“The disease has been mostly very mild, so it will only be detected if looked for.”
Should people be concerned?
It’s not known whether the strain that is causing avian flu in cows will ever mutate into a strain that can be spread from human to human, according to Doron.
“Right now, with no evidence of human-to-human spread, it does not have the potential to become a human pandemic, but that could change,” she told Fox News Digital.
“Obviously, scientists and public health officials should be concerned, and should take action to limit the spread of this disease in farm animals.”
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Farm owners and farm workers should also be concerned, she said.
“They should be taking measures to protect those who work closely with animals, especially cows and chickens,” Doron advised.
“It is not time to vaccinate more broadly yet, given the small number of cases, absence of proven human-to-human transmission and mostly mild infection,” said an expert. (iStock)
Sam Scarpino, PhD, director of AI and life sciences at Northeastern University in Boston, said he finds the rising number of human H5N1 cases “concerning.”
“The more spillovers to humans, the more chances there are for the wrong variant to find itself in a person and spark an epidemic,” he told Fox News Digital.
There’s currently no evidence, however, that the virus has mutated to become more infectious in humans, Scarpino said.
“At this point, there’s no excuse for a farm worker to die from an H5N1 infection.”
“Most likely, we are seeing the impact of an increasing number of infected dairy farms leading to an increasing number of human infections,” he said.
“California also has active efforts for both human and dairy cattle surveillance, so ascertainment may be higher than in other states.”
Tips for prevention
Although experts say the risk for human-to-human transmission remains low, they recommend certain public health precautions.
“People who have close contact with animals, particularly farm animals and wild birds, should be taking precautions,” Doron advised.
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The CDC also recommends that farm workers wear personal protective equipment — such as gloves, goggles and face shields — and that farms follow guidance to prevent the spread of the virus between animals.
“Even if a large outbreak isn’t sparked, the risk to farm workers is clearly higher, and we need to ensure they are protected,” Scarpino told Fox News Digital.
“At this point, there’s no excuse for a farm worker to die from an H5N1 infection.”
All of the affected individuals in California reportedly had direct contact with infected cattle at nine dairy farms, the health department stated. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda, File)
It’s also important for people to get their seasonal flu shot, experts say.
“While it is not likely to protect against avian flu, it will help people avoid being infected with the seasonal and avian strain at the same time, which can lead to genetic mixing and emergence of a pandemic strain,” said Doron.
Getting the flu vaccine also makes it less likely that someone will end up with a suspected case of avian flu as a result of having the seasonal flu and a history of animal exposure, she added.
Vaccines for bird flu are currently in development.
“It is not time to vaccinate more broadly yet, given the small number of cases, absence of proven human-to-human transmission and mostly mild infection,” said Doron.
Roughly half of the infections were linked to exposure to infected cattle and the other half to infected poultry. (iStock)
It is important for tests to be commercially available for avian flu, however.
“Seasonal flu cases will be rising soon, and we will need to distinguish quickly between regular flu and avian flu, especially in animal workers,” Doron noted.
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“Right now, to test for avian flu, specimens have to go to special public health labs and the results take days to return. We are going to need answers more quickly if we want people to be able to properly isolate and prevent spread.”
The CDC recommends that farm workers wear personal protective equipment — such as gloves, goggles and face shields — and that farms follow guidance to prevent the spread of the virus between animals. (iStock)
The CDPH recommends that California residents monitor for bird flu symptoms for 10 days after exposure.
Those include eye redness (conjunctivitis), sore throat, cough, runny or stuffy nose, vomiting, diarrhea, muscle or body aches, fatigue, headaches, trouble breathing and fever.
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“If they start to feel sick, they should immediately isolate, notify their local public health department, and work with public health and health care providers to get timely testing and treatment,” the agency advises on its website.
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One woman’s uncomfortable reaction to alcohol led to a grave discovery.
Hollie Thursby, 28, a mother of two from the U.K., told Kennedy News and Media that after giving birth to her second son, Jack, she began experiencing unusual symptoms.
At a checkup for her son, who was a couple of months old, Thursby mentioned that she was experiencing “unbearably itchy skin,” which is known to be a post-partum symptom. The doctor suggested it was due to changing hormones.
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Thursby added that she occasionally drank a couple glasses of wine. Although she kept the drinking to a minimum, she described having “a lot of pain” down the side of her neck.
“Really quite painful and uncomfortable,” she said, according to the report.
A U.K. mom reported experiencing pain in her neck after drinking a glass or two of wine, which turned out to be one of the first signs that she had cancer. (Kennedy News and Media)
The mother also reported feeling extremely exhausted, which she assumed was due to caring for her children throughout the day.
“I also felt like when I got to bed that someone was sitting on my chest,” she shared.
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In July 2025, Thursby discovered a lump on the side of her neck that she described as “really quite big,” but wasn’t painful, Kennedy News and Media reported.
“It was hard, it didn’t move, but it was there,” she said. “When I turned my neck to the side, you could see it.”
Thursby reportedly began chemotherapy for Stage 2 Hodgkins lymphoma. (Kennedy News and Media)
Thursby’s symptoms turned out to be a form of blood cancer — Stage 2 Hodgkins lymphoma, which means it is in two or more lymph nodes, according to Cancer Research U.K.
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Common symptoms include swelling of the lymph nodes, heavy sweating, weight loss, itching, persistent cough or shortness of breath, high temperatures, and pain in the stomach or lymph nodes after drinking alcohol.
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“Pain when you drink alcohol is actually a known side effect of Hodgkin lymphoma,” she said, per the report. “It’s something about the acidity in the wine and not when you drink other alcohol.”
While alcohol-related pain in Hodgkins lymphoma patients has been “an accepted scientific consensus” since the 1950s, cases are rare, Healthline confirmed.
Hollie Thursby, 28, and her two sons are pictured above. The mother reported feeling extremely exhausted, which she assumed was due to caring for her children throughout the day. (Kennedy News and Media)
Thursby reportedly began chemotherapy in November, noting that the hardest part is not being able to care for her kids after losing her own mother to a blood disorder called myelodysplasia.
“I grew up without a mum, and it was horrendous. I can’t do that to the boys,” she told Kennedy News and Media. “We’re all devastated, but we all know now, and we’ve got a treatment plan, which is what we need.”
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“I’m just doing everything I can to get better for them. I keep telling myself this is only temporary, I just need to keep going.”
Anyone experiencing pain or other concerning symptoms after consuming alcohol should consult a doctor for guidance.
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Red light therapy has been shown to reduce brain inflammation, protecting people who experience head trauma from long-term health consequences, a University of Utah study has shown.
Brain damage from repeated impact over the years is known to cause cognitive symptoms, ranging from memory issues to full-blown dementia, particularly affecting soldiers and athletes.
Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) is a progressive, degenerative brain disease linked to repeated head impacts rather than a single injury, according to Mayo Clinic.
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More than 100 former NFL football players have been posthumously diagnosed with CTE, according to the new study, which was published in the Journal of Neurotrauma.
Other research has shown that military personnel in active combat suffer from similar issues, as do first responders and veterans.
The treatment was administered three times a week for 20 minutes using specialized headsets and intranasal devices designed to penetrate the skull. (iStock)
In the new study, the researchers recruited 26 current football players to understand more about the impact of red-light therapy on brain injuries.
The participants received either red light therapy delivered by a light-emitting headset and a device that clips into the nose, or a placebo treatment with an identical device that doesn’t produce light. Players self-administered the therapy three times a week, 20 minutes each time, for 16 weeks.
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“My first reaction was, ‘There’s no way this can be real,’” said first author Hannah Lindsey, Ph.D., in the university press release. “That’s how striking it was.”
Specific wavelengths of light are believed to enter the brain and reduce molecules that trigger inflammation, potentially halting the path toward dementia and other cognitive conditions. (iStock)
Players using the placebo treatment experienced increased brain inflammation over the course of the season. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans taken at the end of the season showed significantly more signs of inflammation than at the beginning of the season, the study found.
For players who used red-light therapy during the season, their brain inflammation didn’t increase at all.
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Previous studies have shown that red light, if powerful enough, can penetrate the skull and reach the brain, where it may reduce inflammation-related molecules.
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“When we first started this project, I was extremely skeptical,” said Elisabeth Wilde, Ph.D., the senior author on the study. “But we’ve seen consistent results across multiple of our studies, so it’s starting to be quite compelling.”
Study limitations
The study was conducted using a small sample size, which led to different levels of inflammation in the treatment and control groups, the researchers acknowledged.
While the placebo group showed increased brain inflammation during the football season, those receiving red light therapy showed no increase in inflammatory markers. (iStock)
Future large randomized clinical trials will be “crucial to back up the results” in larger populations, they noted.
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“We’ve been trying to figure out how to make sports safer, so that our kids, friends and family can participate in sports safely for the long term while they’re involved in activities that give them happiness and joy,” Carrie Esopenko, Ph.D., second author of the study, said in the release.
“And this really feels like part of the hope for protecting the brain that we’ve been searching for.”
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The team plans to recruit 300 people with persistent symptoms from TBI or concussion for a randomized controlled trial in 2026, with a focus on first responders, veterans and active-duty service members.
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Drinking heavily and consistently over an adult’s lifetime could lead to a higher risk of colorectal cancer, according to a study published in the journal Cancer by the American Cancer Society (ACS).
The study analyzed 20 years of data from more than 88,000 U.S. adults to determine how long-term drinking impacted the risk of developing colorectal cancer (CRC) or precancerous colorectal adenomas (polyps).
The participants reported their average weekly intake of beer, wine and liquor intake during four age periods — 18 to 24, 25 to 39, 40 to 54, and 55 and older.
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“Heavy drinkers” were identified as having more than 14 drinks per week and “moderate drinkers” had between seven and 14 drinks per week.
The observational research revealed that consistent heavy drinking over adulthood was linked to a higher risk of colorectal cancer, especially rectal cancer.
Researchers found a major association between colorectal cancer diagnosis and heavy lifetime drinking. (iStock)
Heavy lifetime drinking was associated with a 25% higher overall CRC risk and nearly double the risk of rectal cancer. Moderate lifetime drinking had a lower overall CRC risk.
Compared to light drinkers, the consistently heavy drinkers had about a 91% higher risk of CRC.
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For colorectal adenomas (precancerous polyps), higher current lifetime drinking did not show a strong pattern, although former drinkers showed a significantly lower risk of non-advanced adenoma compared to current light drinkers.
Out of the 88,092 participants, 1,679 were diagnosed with colorectal cancer.
Out of the 88,092 participants in the study, 1,679 were diagnosed with colorectal cancer. (iStock)
The authors noted that the research was limited, as it was observational and not based on a clinical trial. It also hinged on self-reported alcohol use.
The findings suggest that consistently heavy alcohol intake and higher average lifetime consumption “may increase CRC risk, whereas cessation may lower adenoma risk,” the researchers stated. Associations “may differ by tumor site,” they added.
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The link between drinking alcohol and cancer is not a new discovery, according to health experts.
In a recent episode of the podcast “The Dr. Mark Hyman Show,” Dr. Mark Hyman, chief medical officer of Function Health in California, detailed how even moderate drinking can impact “nearly every organ system in the body,” due to metabolic stress, inflammation, impaired detoxification and its effect on hormones.
The link between drinking alcohol and cancer is not a new discovery, according to health experts. (iStock)
Drinking has been found to increase the risk of many cancers, metabolic dysfunction, gut microbiome disturbances and mitochondrial toxins, Hyman said.
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“Bottom line, alcohol taxes every major system in your body, especially your liver, your brain, your gut, your hormones,” he warned.
Reducing or eliminating alcohol can lower the risk of several cancers, according to medical experts. (Getty Images)
In a previous interview with Fox News Digital, Dr. Pinchieh Chiang, a clinician at Circle Medical in San Francisco, shared that taking a break from drinking alcohol for longer periods of time can “reshape health more profoundly.”
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“Over months to a year, we see sustained improvements in blood pressure, liver function and inflammation,” she said. “Those changes directly affect long-term heart disease and stroke risk.”
Chiang added, “Reducing or eliminating alcohol lowers the risk of several cancers, including breast and colorectal, over time.”
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Fox News Digital reached out to the study researchers for comment.
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