Vaccines are in development that target the bird flu strain that infected a Texas resident, an HHS official told Politico in an April 12 report. Earlier this month, state and federal officials confirmed a person in Texas who had worked on a dairy farm tested positive for H5N1.
"We're really lucky that we have two vaccines that we are working on to be well matched to the circulating strain," Dawn O'Connell, HHS assistant secretary for preparedness and response, told the news outlet. "Those vaccines are going through clinical trial right now," she said, adding the government currently has about 10 million doses that could be deployed in three to four months if necessary.
The human case in Texas is believed to be tied to recent detections of bird flu among dairy cows in several states, marking the first time the disease has been found in dairy cattle. While health officials say the threat avian flu poses to humans remains low, the CDC has said it is closely monitoring the situation and that it is being taken "very seriously."
The U.S. currently does not anticipate it will need to deploy human vaccines, though it has a four-stage plan to quickly deploy shots should the threat grow, according to federal officials.
"We would get to about 125 million doses in 30 days," Ms. O'Connell said.
More recent updates on bird flu can be found here.