Bird flu case reported in Los Angeles after state officials declare emergency
CDC and NIAID
Los Angeles County health officials reported the first human case of bird flu in the area less than a week after a statewide emergency declaration was announced.
In a statement released on Monday, the L.A. County Department of Public Health said the human case of H5 bird flu was detected in an adult who was exposed to livestock infected with the virus at a worksite.
The unnamed adult had mild symptoms, has been treated with antivirals and is recovering at home, according to the agency.
“The overall risk of H5 bird flu to the public remains low,” health officials said.
There are at least 65 confirmed human cases of bird flu nationally — with at least 36 in California, according to the CDC.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency on Dec. 18 as bird flu cases were detected in dairy cows on Southern California farms. The virus had also been previously detected in the state’s Central Valley.
“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 last week.
Symptoms of bird flu in humans include eye redness or discharge, fever, cough or difficulty breathing, sore throat, muscle or body aches, diarrhea and vomiting, according to health officials.
Individuals working with infected animals, including cows, poultry or wildlife, continue to be at higher risk of exposure to the virus.
“People rarely get bird flu, but those who interact with infected livestock or wildlife have a greater risk of infection. This case reminds us to take basic precautions to prevent being exposed,” Los Angeles County health officer Muntu Davis, MD, MPH, said in the statement Monday.
“People should avoid unprotected contact with sick or dead animals including cows, poultry, and wild birds; avoid consuming raw or undercooked animal products, such as raw milk; and protect pets and backyard poultry from exposure to wild animals,” Davis added.
The health official also recommended getting the seasonal flu vaccine “which can help prevent severe seasonal flu illness and lower the risk of getting both seasonal and bird flu infections at the same time if exposed.”
(NEW YORK) — From a pig kidney transplant to restoring genetic deafness, 2024 was a year full of medical breakthroughs.
The breakthroughs include the discovery of a cause of an autoimmune disease, the development of a “game-changing” drug and potential hope for those experiencing end-stage organ failure.
Here are five of the biggest highlights in medical achievements this year:
Gene therapy restores hearing in children
Children with hereditary deafness regained their hearing thanks to a type of gene therapy, according to the results of a clinical trial published in the medical journal The Lancet in January.
Investigators from Mass Eye and Ear, a specialty hospital in Boston, examined six children who had a form of genetic deafness called DFNB9, which is caused by a gene mutation that interferes with the transmission of sound signals from the ear to the brain.
Gene therapy involved the use of an inactive virus carrying a functioning version of the gene, which was introduced into the inner ears of the six children.
After 26 weeks, five of the six children recovered their hearing and could even conduct “normal conversation.”
“Children with this genetic hearing loss…the only treatment option for them until now is [a] cochlear implant,” Dr. Zheng-Yi Chen, an associate scientist in the Eaton-Peabody Laboratories at Mass Eye and Ear and study co-investigator, told ABC News. “And of course, [a] cochlear implant can help them tremendously, but it’s with its own limitations.”
“But with this gene therapy, the children regain hearing, and they were able to speak. So, in a way, the life is totally transformed,” he continued. “This study really opened up the whole field that, in the future, we’ll be able to develop a treatment for other [types] of genetic hearing loss, for which there is no treatment at all at the moment.”
Groundbreaking animal organ transplant
Surgeons at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) conducted the world’s first genetically-edited pig kidney transplant into a living human in March 2024.
During a four-hour procedure, a surgical team connected the pig kidney’s blood vessels and ureter – the duct that carries urine from the kidney to the bladder – with those of 62-year-old Richard Slayman, a man living with end-stage kidney disease.
“For patients with kidney failure, we know that transplantation is the best treatment option, but unfortunately, we face an immense organ shortage,” Dr. Leonardo Riella, medical director of kidney transplantation at MGH, told ABC News. “So, we have over 100,000 patients waiting for a kidney transplant in the U.S., and more than 17 patients die every day on the waiting list.”
“So, the idea here is, how can we overcome this organ shortage barrier? And having kidneys from another species that could be delivered in a timely manner for these patients once they develop kidney failure could be game-changing for the entire field,” he added.
Slayman passed away in May of this year, but there is no evidence it was the result of the transplant, according to MGH.
Riella said over the course of Slayman’s care, much was learned about how to best deliver care when using animal organs for transplants in the hopes of making the treatment more widely available to patients waiting for a new organ.
A cause of lupus discovered
A team at Brigham & Women’s Hospital and Northwestern Medicine said they have discovered a cause of the autoimmune disease lupus and a possible way to reverse it.
Lupus sees the body’s immune system mistakenly attack its own healthy cells and tissues, which can cause inflammation and damage in organs or systems, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In a study, published in the journal Nature in July, researchers compared blood samples from 19 lupus patients to 19 patients without the condition and found imbalances in the types of T-cells lupus patients produce.
T-cells are a certain type of white blood cell that plays a crucial role in the body’s immune response to the disease.
“We’ve identified a fundamental imbalance in the immune responses that patients with lupus make, and we’ve defined specific mediators that can correct this imbalance to dampen the pathologic autoimmune response,” co-corresponding author Dr. Deepak Rao, a rheumatologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and co-director of its Center for Cellular Profiling, said in a press release at the time.
1st new class of schizophrenia drug in more than 3 decades
In September, the FDA approved the first new class of drug to treat people with schizophrenia in more than 30 years.
The pill, called Cobenfy – manufactured by Bristol Myers Squibb – combines two drugs, xanomeline and trospium chloride, and is taken twice a day.
Clinical trials showed the combination helped manage schizophrenia symptoms such as hallucinations, delusions and disorganized thinking.
Dr. René Kahn, chair of psychiatry at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, said it took many years to develop the first medications for schizophrenia, which are effective in preventing psychosis and work by blocking dopamine receptors.
“Blocking the dopamine receptor directly or indirectly is very unpleasant. Sometimes for patients, they can have unpleasant side effects. It can decrease their energy, it can make them feel depressed, and it can give them Parkinsonian side effects,” Kahn told ABC News.
He described Cobenfy as “game-changing in the sense that this is the first drug that doesn’t directly – with the emphasis on directly – influence the dopamine system and certainly doesn’t block dopamine receptors. So that’s very important, because it may show that we don’t have to directly block or affect the dopamine system but can do that through a different mechanism.”
Kahn said the next step will be monitoring the drug as it is prescribed to thousands of schizophrenia patients to ensure it works and that side effects are minimal.
1st over-the-counter combo flu and COVID test outside of emergency use
The FDA authorized the first over-the-counter combination COVID-19 and flu test outside of emergency use in October.
The Healgen Rapid Check COVID-19/Flu A&B Antigen Test can be purchased at a pharmacy or other stores without a prescription.
While there are other over-the-counter combination tests currently available, this is the first to be marketed to consumers using the traditional approval pathway outside of a public health emergency, according to the FDA.
(CHINA) — Chinese health officials are reportedly monitoring an increase in cases of human metapneumovirus (HMPV).
There is currently no evidence that the outbreak is out of the ordinary or that a new respiratory virus or illness has emerged in China.
A spokesperson for the World Health Organization (WHO) said data from China indicates “there has been a recent rise in acute respiratory infections” but that “the overall scale and intensity of respiratory infectious diseases in China this year are lower than last year.”
Cases of HMPV have been steadily increasing in the U.S. since November 2024 with 1.94% of weekly tests positive for HMPV as of Dec. 28, 2024, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). By comparison, 18.71% of weekly tests were positive for flu and 7.10% were positive for COVID during the same week, the data shows.
Public health experts told ABC News that HMPV is well-known to health care professionals and commonly circulates during respiratory virus season.
“This is that winter respiratory virus season, indeed,” Dr. William Schaffner, a professor of preventive medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, told ABC News. “So, all of these respiratory viruses — influenza, COVID, RSV, human metapneumovirus — they all increase this time of the year, in part because we get so close to each other.”
“We spend time indoors and, of course, all of this holiday traveling, family get-together, and parties have been opportunities for us to get close together and for the virus to be transmitted,” he continued.
Here’s what you need to know about HMPV, including what it is, how it spreads and how to treat it.
What is HMPV?
HMPV is a virus that can cause upper and lower respiratory disease, according to the CDC.
It was discovered in 2001 and is in the Pneumoviridae family along with respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, the CDC said.
Over the years, there has been a better understanding and awareness of HMPV, which has led to broader testing, according to the federal health agency.
“Human metapneumovirus is another one of those respiratory viruses that we’re now appreciating more because we have the diagnostic capability to actually diagnose it more readily in hospitals, emergency rooms and even in physicians’ offices,” Schaffner said. “Now we have diagnostic panels that can tell you whether you have influenza or COVID or RSV or human metapneumovirus.”
What are the symptoms?
HMPV has an incubation period of three to six days, according to the CDC.
Symptoms include cough, nasal congestion, fever and shortness of breath, the federal health agency said.
“It’s oftentimes indistinguishable from the other respiratory viruses, because we don’t usually check for it unless somebody is really ill,” Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, a professor of medicine and an infectious diseases specialist at the University of California, San Francisco, told ABC News.
Young children and adults aged 65 and older are among those at the highest risk of HMPV progressing to bronchitis or pneumonia.
How does it spread?
HMPV can spread through secretions from coughing and sneezing, close personal contact and touching objects that have the virus and then touching the eyes, nose or mouth, according to the CDC.
In the U.S., like other respiratory viruses, HMPV cases typically rise in the winter and decrease in the spring.
Chin-Hong said most people are exposed to HMPV by the time they’re five years old. People can get reinfected, but symptoms are typically milder.
Those who are immunocompromised or are older may experience more severe symptoms if they are reinfected.
Is there treatment for HMPV?
There are no antivirals to treat HMPV, so treatment consists of providing supportive care to patients with moderate or severe symptoms, the experts said.
“If you’re wheezing, we’ll give bronchodilators,” Chin-Hong said, referencing a medication that relaxes and opens the airways and helps clear mucus from the lungs. “If you’re dehydrated, we give fluid; we reduce the fever.”
Chin-Hong said that because people may develop co-infections, including bacterial infections, antibiotics may need to be given.
How do I prevent HMPV?
There is no vaccine to prevent HMPV, so prevention includes following basic hygiene including washing hands with soap and water, covering the nose and mouth when coughing and sneezing and staying home when sick.
“People who are in this high-risk group for any of these viruses — particularly older people, people who are frail, people who are immune-compromised — if they go indoors where there are a lot of people, [they should] put their mask back on and also consider social distancing,” Schaffner said.
Chin-Hong and Schaffner added that it’s important for people to receive vaccines for other respiratory illnesses including COVID-19, flu and RSV.
Getting vaccinated against other respiratory viruses can reduce the risk of co-infection and may help health care professionals rule out certain illnesses much sooner.
“Sure, you can get serious disease from HMPV itself, but if you get HMPV plus pneumococcus or HMPV plus influenza or RSV, it could be much worse,” Chim-Hong said. “During respiratory virus season, you want to minimize the probability of co-infection.”
ABC News’ Youri Benadjaoud contributed to this report
(AUSTIN, Texas) — The number of measles cases linked to an outbreak in western Texas has grown to 90, according to new data released on Friday.
Almost all of the cases are in unvaccinated individuals or individuals whose vaccination status is unknown, and 16 people have been hospitalized so far, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services. Five cases included those who have been vaccinated.
A DSHS spokesperson previously told ABC News that this marks the largest measles outbreak in the state in more than 30 years.
Children and teenagers between ages 5 and 17 make up the majority of cases with 51, followed by 26 cases among children ages 4 and under.
Gaines County is the epicenter of the outbreak, with 57 cases confirmed among residents, according to DSHS. State health data shows the number of vaccine exemptions in the county have grown dramatically.
Roughly 7.5% of kindergarteners had parents or guardians who filed for an exemption for at least one vaccine in 2013. Ten years later, that number rose to more than 17.5% — one of the highest in all of Texas, according to state health data.
Meanwhile, in neighboring New Mexico, at least nine cases have been confirmed in Lea County, which borders Texas, a spokesperson for the state Department of Health told ABC News on Friday.
Similarly to the local outbreaks, all of the nationally confirmed cases are in people who are unvaccinated or whose vaccination status is unknown.
Measles is one of the most contagious diseases known to humans. Just one infected patient can spread measles up to nine out of 10 susceptible close contacts, according to the CDC.
Health officials have been urging anyone who isn’t vaccinated to receive the measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) shot.
The CDC currently recommends people receive two vaccine doses, the first at ages 12 to 15 months and the second between 4 and 6 years old. One dose is 93% effective, and two doses are 97% effective.
