And the majority have been found in farmworkers who have been in close proximity to sick poultry or dairy cows.
Health experts are unsure of how the virus was acquired in two cases: one involving a toddler in California and the other involving an adult in Missouri.
Given how common it is in animals and how quickly it seems to be evolving, many experts rank H5N1 as the most dangerous pandemic threat.
People are more likely to be exposed to it and maybe contract it as a result of its increasing environmental prevalence.
“This virus might not go pandemic, but it is really trying hard, and it sure is getting a lot of opportunities,” commented Dr. Marc Johnson, a virologist at the University of Missouri, on X recently.
Overall, statistics indicate that over 12,875 wild and domestic flocks have contracted the virus since it was discovered in the United States in January 2022.
