Health
Bird flu leads to severe human illness and state of emergency; experts discuss risk
Bird flu (H5N1) continues to spark warnings around the country.
On Friday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirmed the country’s first severe case of bird flu in a human.
The patient, who lives in southwestern Louisiana, is currently hospitalized, according to a release from the Louisiana Department of Health (LDH).
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The infected person is known to have been exposed to sick and dead birds that are “suspected to have been infected,” the same source stated.
The LDH is working with the CDC on genomic testing of the virus infecting the hospitalized patient. Fox News Digital reached out to the department for comment.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday confirmed the country’s first severe case of bird flu in a human. (iStock)
There have been a total of 61 human cases throughout the country since April.
No human-to-human transmission has been reported, leading the CDC to maintain its stance that risk to the public is low.
GOVERNOR NEWSOM DECLARES STATE OF EMERGENCY IN CALIFORNIA DUE TO BIRD FLU
Despite the low risk, California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday declared a state of emergency due to the bird flu.
The declaration follows an outbreak of the virus among dairy cows in Southern California farms, according to the news release on the governor’s website.
“This proclamation is a targeted action to ensure government agencies have the resources and flexibility they need to respond quickly to this outbreak,” Newsom said in a statement.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday declared a state of emergency due to the bird flu. (Mario Tama)
“Building on California’s testing and monitoring system — the largest in the nation — we are committed to further protecting public health, supporting our agricultural industry, and ensuring that Californians have access to accurate, up-to-date information,” he continued.
“While the risk to the public remains low, we will continue to take all necessary steps to prevent the spread of this virus.”
Doctors discuss bird flu risk
Sam Scarpino, PhD, director of AI and life sciences at Northeastern University in Boston, said the “tragic case” in Louisiana is evidence of the “widespread nature” of H5N1 in the U.S.
“It also reinforces the very serious situation we are facing,” he told Fox News Digital.
“We need to take more decisive action to control the spread of H5N1 in animal populations.”
“We need to take more decisive action to control the spread of H5N1 in animal populations. Until then, we will continue to see human spillover cases, and some of them will unfortunately be severe.”
Dr. Marc Siegel, clinical professor of medicine at NYU Langone Health and Fox News senior medical analyst, pointed out that this severe case represents just one instance of the infection and is not necessarily cause for alarm.
No human-to-human transmission has been reported, leading the CDC to maintain its stance that risk to the public is low. (iStock)
“We’d have to know more about the patient’s particular medical details,” he told Fox News Digital. “We can’t conclude [from one case] that it’s becoming more severe in humans.”
Previous iterations of bird flu have had a 50% death rate in humans, Siegel noted, but the 61 human cases in the U.S. this year have been “very mild.”
“That is actually a good sign, that the virus is mutating away from severity, as traditionally H5N1 makes humans very sick,” he told Fox News Digital.
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The most critical thing to watch, according to the doctor, is whether bird flu will begin to spread from human to human.
“That’s the key thing we’re concerned about — that it doesn’t get into the upper respiratory tract among humans,” Siegel said.
“Bird flu is a group of influenza viruses that primarily circulate among bird populations,” an expert told Fox News Digital. “However, influenza viruses are also known to jump species, and bird flu has done this a few times in history.” (Uli Deck/picture alliance via Getty Images)
“It hasn’t up until now, and that’s because it would take some mutations — at least one. We’re tracking that, but probably not closely enough.”
The vast majority of recent human cases have stemmed from direct contact with animals, he said — “but it’s now spread into the cattle population and into milk, which worries a lot of people, including me.”
Rebecca C. Christofferson, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Pathobiological Sciences at Louisiana State University, commented to Fox News Digital about the potential for a pandemic.
“Nobody wants another pandemic.”
“Bird flu is a group of influenza viruses that primarily circulate among bird populations,” she told Fox News Digital.
“However, influenza viruses are also known to jump species, and bird flu has done this a few times in history.”
A researcher wears a protective suit while collecting samples of wildlife where the H5N1 bird flu virus was detected in Chilean Antarctic territory in Antarctica. (Reuters/Instituto Antartico Chileno)
“The more the virus gets into mammals and then the more it passes from mammal to mammal, the greater the concern that it will adapt to mammals and spread more easily among them and then spill over into humans,” Christofferson added.
“Nobody wants another pandemic.”
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The good news, Cristofferson said, is that it’s easy to protect yourself from catching bird flu.
“If you have to handle birds or suspected ill animals (or be around ill people), wearing gloves and masks and washing your hands will protect you as it does with other respiratory viruses,” she said.
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A new report by the American Heart Association (AHA) included some troubling predictions for the future of women’s health.
The forecast, published in the journal Circulation on Wednesday, projected increases in various comorbidities in American females by 2050.
More than 59% of women were predicted to have high blood pressure, up from less than 49% currently.
The review also projected that more than 25% of women will have diabetes, compared to about 15% today, and more than 61% will have obesity, compared to 44% currently.
As a result of these risk factors, the prevalence of cardiovascular disease and stroke is expected to rise to 14.4% from 10.7%.
The prevalence of cardiovascular disease and stroke in women is expected to rise to 14.4% from 10.7% by 2050. (iStock)
Not all trends were negative, as unhealthy cholesterol prevalence is expected to drop to about 22% from more than 42% today, the report stated.
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Dr. Elizabeth Klodas, a cardiologist and founder of Step One Foods in Minnesota, commented on these “jarring findings.”
“The fact that on our current trajectory, cardiometabolic disease is projected to explode in women within one generation should be a huge wake-up call,” she told Fox News Digital.
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“Hypertension, diabetes, obesity — these are all major risk factors for heart disease, and we are already seeing what those risks are driving. Heart disease is the No. 1 killer of women, eclipsing all other causes of death, including breast cancer.”
Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death for women in the U.S. and around the world. (iStock)
Klodas warned that heart disease starts early, progresses “stealthily,” and can present “out of the blue in devastating ways.”
The AHA published another study on Thursday revealing one million hospitalizations, showing that heart attack deaths are climbing among adults below the age of 55.
The more alarming finding, according to Klodas, is that young women were found more likely to die after their first heart attack than men of the same age.
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“This is all especially tragic since heart disease is almost entirely preventable,” she said. “The earlier you start, the better.”
Children can show early evidence of plaque deposition in their arteries, which can be reversed through lifestyle changes if “undertaken early enough and aggressively enough,” according to the expert.
Moving more is one part of protecting a healthy heart, according to experts. (iStock)
Klodas suggested that rising heart conditions are associated with traditional risk factors, like smoking, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, obesity and a sedentary lifestyle.
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Doctors are also seeing higher rates of preeclampsia, or high blood pressure during pregnancy, as well as gestational diabetes. Klodas noted that these are sex-specific risk factors that don’t typically contribute to complications until after menopause.
The best way to protect a healthy heart is to “do the basics,” Klodas recommended, including the following lifestyle habits.
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Klodas especially emphasized making improvements to diet, as the food people eat affects “every single risk factor that the AHA’s report highlights.”
“High blood pressure, high blood sugar, high cholesterol, excess weight – these are all conditions that are driven in part or in whole by food,” she said. “We eat multiple times every single day, which means what we eat has profound cumulative effects over time.”
“Even a small improvement in dietary intake, when maintained, can have a massive positive impact on health,” a doctor said. (iStock)
“Even a small improvement in dietary intake, when maintained, can have a massive positive impact on health.”
The doctor also recommends changing out a few snacks per day for healthier choices, which has been proven to “yield medication-level cholesterol reductions” in a month.
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“Keep up that small change and, over the course of a year, you could also lose 20 pounds and reduce your sodium intake enough to avoid blood pressure-lowering medications,” Klodas added.
“Women should not view the AHA report as inevitable. We have power over our health destinies. We just need to use it.”
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Nearsightedness (myopia) is skyrocketing globally, with nearly half of the world’s population expected to be myopic by 2050, according to the World Health Organization.
Heavy use of smartphones and other devices is associated with an 80% higher risk of myopia when combined with excessive computer use, but a new study suggests that dim indoor lighting could also be a factor.
For years, scientists have been puzzled by the different ways myopia is triggered. In lab settings, it can be induced by blurring vision or using different lenses. Conversely, it can be slowed by something as simple as spending time outdoors, research suggests.
Nearsightedness occurs when the eyeball grows too long from front to back, according to the American Optometric Association (AOA). This physical elongation causes light to focus in front of the retina rather than directly on it, making distant objects appear blurry.
The study suggests that myopia isn’t caused by the digital devices themselves, but by the low-light environments where they are typically used. (iStock)
Researchers at the State University of New York (SUNY) College of Optometry identified a potential specific trigger for this growth. When someone looks at a phone or a book up close, the pupil naturally constricts.
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“In bright outdoor light, the pupil constricts to protect the eye while still allowing ample light to reach the retina,” Urusha Maharjan, a SUNY Optometry doctoral student who conducted the study, said in a press release.
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“When people focus on close objects indoors, such as phones, tablets or books, the pupil can also constrict — not because of brightness, but to sharpen the image,” she went on. “In dim lighting, this combination may significantly reduce retinal illumination.”
High-intensity natural light prevents myopia because it provides enough retinal stimulation to override the “stop growing” signal, even when pupils are constricted. (iStock)
The hypothesis suggests that when the retina is deprived of light during extended close-up work, it sends a signal for the eye to grow.
In a dim environment, the narrowed pupil allows so little light through that the retinal activity isn’t strong enough to signal the eye to stop growing, the researchers found.
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In contrast, being outdoors provides light levels much brighter than indoors. This ensures that even when the pupil narrows to focus on a nearby object, the retina still receives a strong signal, maintaining healthy eye development.
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The team noted some limitations of the study, including the small subject group and the inability to directly measure internal lens changes, as the bright backgrounds used to mimic the outdoors made pupils too small for standard equipment.
Researchers believe that increasing indoor brightness during close-up work could be a simple, testable way to slow the global nearsightedness epidemic. (iStock)
“This is not a final answer,” Jose-Manuel Alonso, MD, PhD, SUNY distinguished professor and senior author of the study, said in the release.
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“But the study offers a testable hypothesis that reframes how visual habits, lighting and eye focusing interact.”
The study was published in the journal Cell Reports.
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