Richard H. Hughes, IV, Member of the Firm in the Health Care & Life Sciences practice, in the firm’s Washington, DC, office, co-authored an article in Health Affairs, titled “Are We Ready for a Bird Flu Vaccination Campaign?”
Following is an excerpt:
As the possibility of human transmission of highly pathogenic H5N1 influenza (bird flu) looms, it is time to assess whether the nation is prepared to mount a mass vaccination campaign against a new pandemic threat. To date in 2024, 14 human cases of influenza A (H5N1) have been identified, all but one known to be a consequence of animal-to-human transmission. Most of these cases have been among individuals with exposure to poultry, although four are associated with an ongoing, multistate outbreak of H5N1 influenza among dairy cattle.
These cases do not guarantee the emergence of a strain with the capacity for human-to-human transmission, but they may ultimately be sentinel events on the path toward emergence of an easily transmissible and highly pathogenic viral strain with pandemic potential.
