California health officials are working to limit the effects of a recent spike in bird flu.
During a virtual meeting on Friday, Dr. Erica Phan with the California Department of Public Health said that the overall risk of bird flu is low.
“Thirty-five of our 36 human cases in California are the direct result of exposure to infected cattle,” she said. “We still have not seen any evidence of human-to-human transmission in California or the U.S.”
That one case, according to Dr. Phan, involved a child from Alameda County who got the bird flu but did not get it from exposure to an infected cow. Officials are still investigating the source. She added that there has been no known case in which the child spread the bird flu as those who came into contact with the child tested negative for symptoms.
Dr. Phan added that the department is monitoring 5,000 individuals who have potential bird flu symptoms and of those results, 130 came back and 36 tested positive.
She added that the agency has given out more than four million pieces of PPE to protect state farm workers.
Want to get caught up on what's happening in SoCal every weekday afternoon? Click to follow The L.A. Local wherever you get podcasts.
When it comes to milk consumption, Dr. Phan said there is nothing to worry about with pasteurized dairy products.
“Pasteurized milk and pasteurized dairy products continue to be safe to consume, and pasteurization is fully effective in activating the bird flu virus,” she said. “As a parent and a pediatrician, I am grateful for pasteurization and always recommend pasteurized milk for my family and my patients.”
As far as raw milk consumption goes, on Dec. 14, the California Department of Food and Agriculture issued a recall of raw milk products produced and packaged by Valley Milk Simply Bottled due to bird flu being found in samples taken from a raw milk bulk tank.
On Wednesday, Gov.
Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency so that government agencies have the “resources and flexibility” to respond to the outbreak.
Follow KNX News 97.1 FM
Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | TikTok
