PAHO Alerts of Avian Influenza Outbreaks in 19 LATAM Countries

 

Havana, Jun 11 (ACN) The Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO) announced on Tuesday that nineteen Latin American nations haver reported avian influenza outbreaks in domestic and wild birds since 2022 up to mid-May this year.

Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, the United States, Guatemala, Honduras, Mavinas islands (Falklands), México, Panama, Paraguay, Perú, Uruguay and Venezuela are the countries involved.

According to a new epidemiological alert report, the highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) A(H5N1) virus currently circulating in the region belongs to a HPAI genotype, the product of a recombination that occurred in wild birds in Europe and low pathogenic strains in wild and domestic birds during its global spread.

The new genotype has rapidly spread from Europe to North America, Africa and Western Asia, through migration routes of aquatic birds, reads the report, according to PL news agency.

From January to mid May, six countries in the Americas identified 210 avian influenza in birds and another in mammals, while six human infections were reported in 2022 in the Americas: four in the USA, one in Ecuador and one in Chile.

Although avian influenza usually affects animals, it poses continuous risks to human health. Sporadic cases detected in humans are usually linked to direct contact with infected animals in affected environments.

According to current evidence, the virus does not easily transmit from one person to another, but epidemiological surveillance must be reinforced to detect any possible change of this reality, according to PAHO experts.