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First case of highly pathogenic avian influenza transmitted from cow to human confirmed
(www.sciencedaily.com)
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this post was submitted on 14 May 2024
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I just don’t get why transmission to humans is considered a question. Transmissions to mammals is happening. We are mammals. We aren’t special. We need to stop acting like we’re something different so leopards don’t eat our stupid faces.
I don’t question that the quoted person knows what they are talking about, but that quote perpetuates the idea that H5N1 is a long shot when we already have people playing freedom about milk.
Mammals are not identical and there are a ton of diseases that do affect multiple species and a lot more that don't.
Opossums rarely, if ever, get rabies. Bats tend to get diseases without suffering from them, but are great incubators for diseases to mutate so they can spread to other mammals. Feline lukemia is extremely contagious between cats, but has never spread to humans.
It is not that humans are special, but that diseases are not universally transmitted between species.
This is a big deal because the bird to cow to human transmission doesn't have a precedent. No scientist who studies disease thinks transmission is impossible, since diseases can mutate.
You just picked a mammal with one of the most unique immune systems and one that is a completely different class of mammal of which very few exist tbf. Many diseases can only affect a very small handful of even quite related species though. There are diseases that affect some apes but not others.
Of course it’s a big deal. But H5N1 has transmitted already between multiple mammals (https://www.aphis.usda.gov/livestock-poultry-disease/avian/avian-influenza/hpai-detections/mammals , but you already know that stuff I think).
The phrasing in the quote, in my opinion, gives countless people the wrong idea of human uniqueness in this situation.
I fully agree, but I also grew up around religion, so... humans gonna get their face eaten.
There have been almost 1000 confirmed H5N1 cases in humans over the past 20 years, and over that time it's infected many different mammals. What's different this time is the virulent cattle-to-cattle transmission happening in the US. A human catching it from close contact with an infected animal is not unusual