On a recent Monday morning, workers began their week on a large poultry farm in Franklin County, Washington, home to over 800,000 chickens.
By the end of the day, avian flu had been discovered among some of those chickens. By the end of the week, four workers came down with the illness, which had infected only a handful of other people in the U.S. And after two more days of testing by the Benton Franklin Health District, another 10 workers at the farm tested positive.
That outbreak, initially detected Oct. 14, represented the first human cases this year of the avian flu in the Pacific Northwest. The first human case in Oregon was confirmed Nov. 15, adding to mounting evidence that the flu is spreading to farmworker populations across the Western U.S. But efforts to test and monitor the disease among workers are spotty and inconsistent and leave the responsibility for getting tested on the laborers themselves, many of whom are undocumented and can’t afford to take time off if they test positive.
Meanwhile, the virus is spreading rapidly among cows and chickens, raising concerns among epidemiologists that the avian flu could merge with the regular flu and cause a pandemic, making it even more urgent to try to limit the spread among people.
Regular testing helps health officials better understand how the virus is being transmitted and how to protect workers. Without it, dozens of positive workers could be undetected, leaving them to handle symptoms on their own.
“The gold standard for public health is to be able to respond, to do surveillance and to understand what’s happening,” said Amy Liebman, chief program officer of workers, environment and climate for Migrant Clinicians Network, a nonprofit organization made up of health care workers who provide care to underserved communities. “If we don’t know that these things are happening, it’s very hard to respond.”
Source: Bird flu is racing through farms, but Northwest states are rarely testing workers – OPB

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