Flu

Some avian influenza viruses also affect dogs and other pets, including hamsters and guinea pigs. Oregon saw its first case of bird flu in December, in a cat that had eaten raw pet food. A second case in January came from a cat that lived next to a wildlife refuge and was exposed to wild waterfowl.

With egg prices soaring, the Trump administration is planning a new strategy for fighting bird flu that stresses vaccinations and tighter biosecurity instead of killing off millions of chickens when the disease strikes a flock

The annual winter respiratory virus season is in full force. The number of people catching the flu is skyrocketing, while COVID-19, RSV and other respiratory viral illnesses are also rising.

Health officials in Louisiana say a person there has died after catching bird flu. This marks the first reported death in the U.S. from the virus during the current outbreak.

They’re among 11 deaths of children from the flu nationwide, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Experts and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention agree that current risk to the general public is low. But flu viruses evolve, and it won’t take too many leaps for H5N1 bird flu to gain the ability to spread among people.

Agriculture officials say the eggs from the affected birds did not enter the food supply. The same bird flu strain, the H5N1 virus, has affected over 100 million poultry birds across the U.S. since 2022.

Farm workers haveAfter working around an infected poultry flock at a commercial egg farm, four agricultural workers in southeast Washington have preliminarily tested positive for bird flu. The cases, if confirmed by the CDC, would be the first time people in Washington have contracted the virus since officials began tracking it in the U.S. in 2022.

A strain of influenza appears to have disappeared from the planet since COVID. As a result, U.S. flu vaccines have been redesigned.

Vaccines can protect the youngest and oldest Oregonians from RSV, Covid-19, and the flu this fall.