Health
In a potential outbreak, is bird flu testing available for humans? What to know
Several people have tested positive for bird flu in the U.S., raising questions about the availability of tests in the event of a potential outbreak.
As of July 11, the H5N1 virus has affected more than 99 million poultry (in all 50 states), more than 9,500 wild birds (in 48 states) and more than 145 dairy herds (in 12 states), according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Five human cases have been reported since 2022, including a farm worker infected in Colorado and dairy workers ill in Texas and Michigan.
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As of June 28, only 53 people have been tested for the virus associated with the dairy cow outbreak, according to the CDC.
Here is more information.
Several humans have tested positive for bird flu in the U.S., raising questions about the availability of tests in the event of a potential outbreak. (REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo)
How do people get tested for bird flu?
At this point, only governmental health departments are providing H5N1 avian influenza testing, according to Edward Liu, M.D., chief of infectious diseases at Hackensack Meridian Jersey Shore University Medical Center.
“However, the CDC is taking steps to ramp up the nation’s capacity to test for the flu virus, asking private companies to develop and increase the number and types of tests that can effectively detect H5N1 infections in people,” Liu told Fox News Digital via email.
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“A recent announcement from the CDC seemed to indicate that multiple private organizations are working on developing tests.”
Private companies, however, will likely not ramp up production unless there is a clear demand for avian flu tests due to increasing numbers, Liu added.
As of July 11, the H5N1 virus has affected more than 99 million poultry, more than 9,500 wild birds and more than 145 dairy herds, according to the CDC. (iStock)
Neal Barnard, M.D., an adjunct professor of medicine at the George Washington University School of Medicine in Washington, D.C., and president of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, confirmed there are currently no consumer-level tests for bird flu.
“The home tests for flu (which can be bought on Amazon, for example) are not sensitive to bird flu,” he told Fox News Digital in an email.
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“If a person has symptoms and an exposure history suggestive of bird flu, a doctor can send a swab sample to the state health department, which can arrange appropriate testing, but this is rarely done.”
CDC’s warning of limited availability of testing
In a June 10 memo, the CDC issued a public statement warning of a lack of testing availability.
“The World Health Organization (WHO) has identified this virus as a major public health concern, as it has the potential to cause a global pandemic,” the statement read.
“The home tests for flu are not sensitive to bird flu.”
“The current testing capabilities for influenza A(H5) are limited, which could hinder efforts to contain and control the virus in the event of an outbreak.”
Currently, only the CDC and certain jurisdictional public health laboratories are equipped to test for and diagnose bird flu, according to the agency.
In a June 10 memo, the CDC issued a public statement warning of lack of testing availability for the H5N1 virus. (Getty Images)
“This poses a significant problem, as these laboratories may not have the capacity to handle a large number of cases in the event of an H5 epidemic or pandemic,” the statement said.
“This could result in delays in diagnosing and treating individuals, leading to the further spread of the virus.”
It also noted, “The amount of testing required in the event of an emergency may quickly exceed the capacity to test at public health laboratories, both domestically and internationally.”
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To address the situation, the CDC called for private companies to design a lab developed test (LDT) to gain regulatory approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
The different types of flu tests
The tests currently available to individuals will alert that a person has the flu — but may not be able to determine if it is avian flu (which is a flu A variant) versus other circulating strains of flu, the expert said.
“However, at the least, that broad detection will give enough information for a clinician to start the patient on antiviral medication, like Tamiflu, which currently will treat avian flu,” Liu noted.
A number of tests are available to detect flu viruses, the doctor said.
The most common are rapid influenza diagnostic tests (RIDTs), which detect parts of the virus that stimulate an immune response.
Advanced tests — reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), viral culture and immunofluorescence assays — will be able to differentiate avian flu from other strains of flu, a doctor said. (REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo)
“These tests can provide results within approximately 10 to 15 minutes, but may not be as accurate as other flu tests,” Liu said.
Other flu tests, called rapid molecular assays, detect the genetic material of the flu virus.
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“Rapid molecular assays produce results in 15 to 20 minutes and are more accurate than RIDTs,” Liu said.
The CDC has recommended molecular tests due to their greater sensitivity.
There have been a total of five human cases reported since 2022, including the case of a farm worker in Colorado and that of dairy workers in Texas and Michigan. (iStock)
“There are several other, more accurate flu tests available that must be performed in specialized laboratories, such as hospitals and public health laboratories,” Liu said.
These advanced tests — reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), viral culture and immunofluorescence assays — will be able to differentiate avian flu from other strains of flu, the doctor said.
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“These tests require a health care provider to swipe the inside of the nose or the back of the throat with a swab and then send it for testing,” he said. “Results may take one to several hours.”
Fox News Digital reached out to the CDC requesting comment.
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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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