Federal officials plan to double the stockpile of emergency bird flu vaccines as they identify more people infected with the disease.
Three manufacturers were awarded $72 million to increase pandemic preparedness including against avian influenza, officials announced in a Friday morning briefing.
The funding is expected to bring the country’s stockpile to 10 million doses by next spring, according to David Boucher, an infectious disease preparedness director at the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response, part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The U.S. prepared the first 4.8 million doses this summer, though officials have not used them.
Officials this year have identified 16 people infected with H5N1 avian influenza. All have had mild symptoms. There has been no human-to-human spread of the virus. If that happened, public health authorities would likely change their assessment about putting the vaccines to use. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention emphasized that despite the human cases, the risk to the general public remains low.
The latest $72 million in funding will be awarded to three companies: CSL Seqirus, which produced the first round of doses, and to Sanofi and GSK. The three companies would fill and finish doses of influenza vaccines from bulk storage into ready-to-use vials or pre-filled syringes to ensure the vaccines are ready for distribution if needed. The companies will also manufacture the components for vaccines against circulating influenza strains, and Sanofi plans to keep a stable egg supply on hand for future production of the egg-based vaccine.
As more herds infected, more dairy workers getting sick
The new funding was announced after officials identified two new bird flu cases in California dairy workers on Thursday. Several dairy herds in the state have been infected since officials first identified the virus circulating among cows in August. Federal officials said 56 herds were infected as of Thursday.
The two workers at separate Central Valley farms had been in contact with infected animals. Both developed eye redness, a common symptom among people infected this year. Six of the country’s 16 bird flu cases have been among dairy workers, and nine were poultry workers in Colorado.
On Saturday, the California Department of Public Health said a third person is suspected of contracting bird flu pending CDC specimen testing. All three cases involve people in contact with infected cows at different Central Valley dairy farms. None of the people infected have been hospitalized.
“As there are more herds that test positive, there are more workers who are exposed,” Dr. Nirav Shah, principal deputy director at CDC, told reporters. “And when there are more workers who are exposed, the chances of human infection increase.”
Another person was recently infected in Missouri with no known source of transmission. The CDC is testing blood samples for nearby contacts, including several health workers and another person in the same household. Those results are forthcoming.
In the meantime, the CDC is distributing seasonal flu vaccines – which don’t prevent bird flu infection – to farm workers, Shah said. The goal is to reduce the risk of seasonal flu among workers who are at greater risk of catching bird flu from sick livestock. They fear that cross-reaction of bird flu and seasonal flu in the body may cause bird flu to mutate to spread easier or cause more serious disease.
Quarantine, test milk for bird flu
Dr. Eric Deeble, a senior official at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, said California officials have quarantined dairy farms where cattle are infected. They have also established 10-km zones around farms that have had infections to test milk in these areas for traces of H5N1.
Bulk milk sampling has been the primary way for officials to detect virus in herds, Deeble said, referencing reductions of spread on Colorado farms.
After Colorado herds began getting infected, he explained, officials found a significant number of infections across the state. By mandating bulk milk testing, officials tracked down and isolated the spread of the virus. Now, only one herd, out of 86 in the state, was infected with H5N1, Deeble said.
This is a concern for California, the nation’s largest milk producer. Federal regulators have said pasteurization is effective at eliminating bird flu virus in dairy milk.
(This story has been updated to add new information.)
