A third human case of H5N1 avian flu has been confirmed in the U.S. according to a May 30 CDC update. The agency says it is linked to the ongoing national outbreak in livestock and poultry.
The confirmation comes nearly one week after the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services and CDC confirmed the first human case detected in the state on May 22.
CDC officials determined the latest case was found in a patient who works on a dairy farm and likely from cow-to-person transmission — similar to the other two human cases that have been connected to the ongoing outbreak among livestock and poultry.
This is the third human case to be identified since April 5 when the first case was reported in a Texas dairy farmworker.
Unlike the other two cases, the new human H5N1 infection found in a Michigan resident "is the first human case of H5 in the United States to report more typical symptoms of acute respiratory illness associated with influenza virus infection, including A (H5N1) viruses," the CDC wrote in its update.
In the other instances, patients presented with eye infection symptoms, according to the CDC.
The CDC is asking health officials in all 50 states to continue monitoring the prevalence of influenza as H5N1 bird flu infections among poultry and livestock increase and have begun to prompt concern over the possibility of human-to-human transmission.