(Reuters) -The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has merged H5N1 bird flu updates with routine updates for seasonal influenza, the agency’s website showed on Monday.
The number of people monitored and tested for bird flu will be reported on a monthly basis, the agency said, adding that it will no longer report infection rates in animals on its website.
The virus has infected 70 people, mostly farm workers, and killed one person over the past year as it spread aggressively among cattle herds and poultry flocks.
Experts have warned that further spread of bird flu raises the risk of it becoming more transmissible to humans. According to CDC, the risk to public health from bird flu remains low.
Earlier in the day, Bloomberg News reported that CDC has ended its emergency response for bird flu as the outbreak has abated.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees CDC, did not respond to a Reuters request for comment on the Bloomberg report.
The country’s response to bird flu has faced several disruptions this year, including from staff exodus at the U.S. Department of Agriculture as part of the Trump administration’s wider efforts to shrink the federal workforce and the government cancelling a more than $700 million contract awarded to Moderna for the late-stage development of its bird flu vaccine for humans.
(Reporting by Mariam Sunny in Bengaluru; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar)
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