Health
Despite growing concerns over bird flu, many US dairy workers have not received protective equipment
CDC issues alert over bird flu case
Fox News medical contributor Dr. Marc Siegel on what to know about bird flu and why it is important to not look directly at the solar eclipse without proper glasses
- Despite growing concern about bird flu, many U.S. dairy farms have not increased health protections for employees.
- On May 22, 2024, the U.S. government said a second dairy worker has contracted bird flu since cattle first tested positive in late March.
- The U.S. Department of Agriculture said it believes unpasteurized milk is the primary vector for transmitting the virus in cows, though officials do not know exactly how it spreads.
Many U.S. dairy farms have not yet increased health protections against bird flu for employees during an outbreak in cows, according to workers, activists and farmers, worrying health experts about the risk for more human infections of a virus with pandemic potential.
Epidemiologists are concerned the virus could potentially spread and cause serious illnesses as farmers downplay the risk to workers while employees are not widely aware of cases in U.S. cattle.
The U.S. government said on Wednesday that a second dairy worker contracted bird flu since cattle first tested positive in late March and that investigators are looking into whether the person was wearing or offered protective equipment.
AUSTRALIA REPORTS NEW BIRD FLU CASE AT POULTRY FARM AS GLOBAL CONCERNS RISE
Nearly 24,000 farms sell milk around the country, and they offer varying protections to staff. Lobby group the National Milk Producers Federation said it encouraged farms to use protective equipment in line with federal recommendations and heard of increased worker protections.
Three dairy workers, seven activists and two lawyers who assist farm employees told Reuters that dairy owners have not offered equipment like face shields and goggles to staff who spend 10- to 12-hour days side-by-side with cows. Three large dairy companies with tens of thousands of cows declined to comment on their procedures.
The workers – all based in New York, a major dairy producer – said they heard of the new illness affecting cattle through the media or community organizers, not their employers. One, 39-year-old Luis Jimenez from Mexico, said last week it was business as usual.
A worker using an automated machine helps milk Holstein cows at Airoso Circle A Dairy in Pixley, California, on October 2, 2019. Workers who attach and detach milking equipment to cows get their faces close to unpasteurized milk. The U.S. Department of Agriculture said it believes unpasteurized milk is the primary vector for transmitting the virus in cows. (Reuters/Mike Blake/File Photo)
“They’re not doing anything,” he said.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in April and May advised workers to use personal protective equipment (PPE) if they may be exposed to sick livestock, after a Texas dairy worker tested positive for bird flu. On May 6, the agency asked states to make equipment available to workers.
CDC wants “to make sure that farm workers across the country, whether they are at a farm with an affected herd or not, have access to PPE,” said Nirav Shah, principal deputy director, last week.
New York state said it is assessing CDC’s recommendation and has not yet distributed equipment. Texas, New Mexico and Colorado, where cattle were infected, said they distributed equipment to eight dairies combined. Kansas, Idaho and Wisconsin said they have equipment, but no farmers asked for it.
Michigan, where the second dairy worker tested positive, said many farms have protective gear but the state is coordinating a way to make it available for those that need more.
Dairies became more aware of bird flu’s risks in late April after the U.S. government began requiring that cows test negative before crossing state lines, said Emily Yeiser Stepp, who oversees a National Milk Producers Federation program that covers workforce development.
Still, “reaching out into some of our rural networks takes a little longer,” she said when told of workers who said they were not informed of recommendations for protective equipment.
CLOSE CONTACT WITH COWS
The U.S. confirmed bird flu in dairy cattle in nine states. Scientists have said they believe the outbreak is more widespread based on findings of H5N1 particles in about 20% of retail milk samples.
Bird flu has caused serious or fatal infections globally among people in close contact with wild birds or poultry. In cows, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said it believes unpasteurized milk is the primary vector for transmitting the virus, though officials do not know exactly how it spreads.
Health experts advise dairy workers to wear gloves and disposable coveralls that can block milk splashes on their bodies or clothing.
Jimenez said his coworkers are under pressure to work so quickly that they sometimes do not have time to wash their hands before meals and often drive home in their work clothes.
Workers attach and detach milking equipment on cows, putting their faces close to unpasteurized milk. Most are immigrants and many do not have health insurance.
“When you’re milking, splashes can’t be avoided. When it splashes in our eyes, we wash it out with water,” said another New York worker, who requested anonymity because he is undocumented.
Lucas Sjostrom, a farmer and executive director of the Minnesota Milk Producers Association, uses robotic machines to attach milking equipment to cows, but said he is being extra conscious that human workers wear gloves while transporting unpasteurized milk. Minnesota has not reported bird flu in cows.
In Indiana, another state without confirmed cases, farmer Steve Obert said he has not increased precautions for workers, though that could change if his herd tests positive. Extra protective equipment is not comfortable to wear, he added.
“We’re rather isolated and I don’t think the risk is really great,” said Obert, executive director of the industry group Indiana Dairy Producers.
BLOOD-RED EYES
The infected Texas worker suffered conjunctivitis and broken blood vessels that turned his eyes scarlet red, according to a photo published in the New England Journal of Medicine. He reported wearing gloves when working with cows but not respiratory or eye protection, the journal said.
Scientists are watching for changes in the virus that could make it spread more easily among humans. Epidemiologists said it could cause more serious illnesses if it mutates or infects someone with a compromised immune system.
Some dairies with infected cows have resisted allowing federal officials on their farms because of financial concerns, said Gregory Gray, a University of Texas Medical Branch professor studying cattle diseases.
The CDC said it would like to test more farm workers, but it is not required.
New Mexico had anecdotal reports of workers with symptoms similar to conjunctivitis, but most were not tested, according to internal state documents that were dated April 26 and obtained by Reuters under a public records request. The workers were not tested because they did not seek healthcare, the New Mexico Department of Health said.
Policy changes are needed to encourage workers to seek treatment, such as emergency income assurance for those who test positive, said Brian Castrucci, an epidemiologist and CEO at health policy group the de Beaumont Foundation.
“I don’t want to wait until we have a dead dairy farm worker until we ratchet up what we’re doing,” he said.
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During a recent episode of her podcast, Gwyneth Paltrow spoke with neuroscientist Dr. Andrew Huberman about retatrutide, a new advancement in GLP-1 (glucagon-like peptide-1) therapies.
In recent years, GLP-1 receptor agonists have become a major focus in discussions around biohacking, longevity and wellness – but they’re not without a multitude of side effects.
Huberman noted that while first-generation weight-loss drugs curbed users’ appetites, they frequently plunged them into massive, rapid caloric deficits.
‘NEXT OZEMPIC’ AIMS TO DELIVER 30% WEIGHT LOSS WITH FEWER SIDE EFFECTS
Without aggressive resistance training, a high percentage of that lost weight came directly from lean muscle. “People would lose a ton of weight, but they would also lose muscle mass,” Huberman told Paltrow.
In clinical trials, retatrutide is administered as a once-weekly subcutaneous injection. (iStock)
That is where retatrutide comes in, he said. Unlike older single- or dual-action medications, retatrutide is a triple agonist.
That means it activates the body’s receptors for glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide (GIP), glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) and glucagon – three hormones involved in regulating blood sugar, appetite and metabolism.
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“Retatrutide is a more mild agonist of GLP-1,” said Huberman. “It also increases glucagon and … GIP. So, it hits three different pathways, each a bit more subtly.”
In clinical trials, retatrutide is administered as a once-weekly subcutaneous injection.
Without aggressive resistance training, a high percentage of lost weight can come directly from lean muscle mass, said Andrew Huberman. (iStock)
Because of its balanced, multi-receptor approach, Huberman said the drug has a “lower side effect profile” while still allowing people to lose up to a third of their body weight “across a year or so.”
NEW OZEMPIC-ALTERNATIVE DIABETES PILL BURNS FAT WITHOUT MUSCLE LOSS, STUDY SUGGESTS
Most importantly for fitness and longevity advocates, the doctor pointed out that retatrutide seems to have “some muscle sparing effect.”
Because the drug is still moving through official pipelines, a massive gray market of compounding pharmacies and online peptide suppliers has cropped up to meet the growing demand.
Retatrutide is an investigational molecule that is legally available only to participants in Lilly’s clinical trials, according to Lilly’s website, and the company is currently “evaluating its safety and efficacy” in these clinical studies. (iStock)
Huberman issued a strict warning regarding these unregulated online sources, noting that these options “can say 99% purity, but that 1% means there could be some LPS,” referring to lipopolysaccharides, a type of bacterial toxin.
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“LPS will cause inflammation,” he cautioned. “One injection isn’t gonna do it, but multiple injections over time, I could see where that could become problematic.”
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Paltrow echoed the safety concerns, comparing the current “wild-west” peptide craze to the landscape of supplements in the 90s, “where there’s really no third-party testing and it’s kind of word of mouth.”
“Multiple injections over time, I could see where that could become problematic.”
Both agreed that anyone exploring these therapies should avoid unverified online sources and prioritize working with a medical doctor.
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Retatrutide is an investigational molecule that is legally available only to participants in Lilly’s clinical trials, according to the manufacturer’s website. The company is currently “evaluating its safety and efficacy.”
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The drug has not been reviewed or approved by any regulatory agency, and no one should consider taking anything claiming to be retatrutide outside of a Lilly-sponsored clinical trial, experts advise.
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A new treatment for endometrial cancer demonstrated strong potential in a Phase 3 clinical trial.
Drugmaker Merck announced Monday that the investigational drug sacituzumab tirumotecan (sac-TMT) met its “primary endpoints” of overall survival and progression-free survival in patients with advanced or recurrent endometrial cancer.
The TroFuse-005 trial is the first global Phase 3 trial to “demonstrate statistically significant improvement” in survival compared to chemotherapy in these patients, according to a Merck press release.
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This was also the first and only antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) to achieve such a result for endometrial cancer patients in this setting, the researchers stated.
An ADC is a targeted cancer therapy that delivers more of the drug to tumor cells while limiting damage to healthy cells.
The investigational drug, sac-TMT, is administered every two weeks via IV infusion. (iStock)
The trial involved 776 patients with endometrial cancer whose disease worsened after receiving both platinum chemotherapy and immunotherapy.
The patients were randomly assigned sac-TMT, administered every two weeks, or a treatment of the physician’s choice, including doxorubin or paclitaxel chemotherapy. The patients were aware of which treatment they were receiving.
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Those receiving sac-TMT showed “clinically meaningful improvement” in their disease state compared to the treatment of physician’s choice, the researchers found.
The study also met response rate benchmarks and exhibited similar side effects to earlier studies of the same drug, Merck reported.
NEW BREAST CANCER DRUG WINS FDA APPROVAL AFTER SLASHING PROGRESSION RISK BY NEARLY 40%
The drugmaker did not disclose any statistics on exact survival benefit, response rate, side effect rates or other details, but the researchers aim to present this Phase 3 data at an upcoming medical meeting.
The drug “may be able to address a critical unmet need for certain patients with advanced endometrial cancer,” said the lead researcher (not pictured). (iStock)
Dr. Domenica Lorusso, the study’s global lead investigator and professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Humanitas University and Humanitas San Pio X in Milan, wrote in a press release that these results show sac-TMT “may be able to address a critical unmet need for certain patients with advanced endometrial cancer, one of the only cancers increasing in both incidence and mortality worldwide.”
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“Despite recent advances, patients whose disease progresses following treatment with platinum and immunotherapy are urgently in need of new options, and these findings show for the first time that a TROP2 ADC may be an effective option in this setting,” she added.
Dr. Brian Slomovitz, co-director of gynecologic oncology at Mount Sinai and an investigator on this trial, reflected on the study findings during an interview with Fox News Digital.
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“Unlike many other cancers that we are treating, the number of endometrial cancers and the number of deaths due to endometrial cancers are on the rise,” Slomovitz noted.
“In the United States, the number of deaths due to endometrial cancer has surpassed the number of deaths due to ovarian cancer, [making it] the deadliest of all gynecologic malignancies.”
Endometrial cancer has become “the deadliest of all gynecologic malignancies,” one doctor shared. (iStock)
Despite recent advancements introducing immunotherapy as the standard of care, “better treatment options” for patients with recurrent disease “remains an unmet need,” Slomovitz commented.
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“If the full data confirm this announcement, the key questions will be the magnitude of the survival benefit and the toxicity profile — those will define sac-TMT’s role,” he said.
“But an overall survival improvement in recurrent disease is a real, meaningful result for patients and their families, not just a statistical one.”
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