CDC offers seasonal flu vaccines to farmworkers amid bird flu outbreak

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is launching a $5 million initiative to vaccinate approximately 200,000 livestock producers against seasonal flu this fall in states hardest hit by bird flu outbreaks.

Workers on poultry, dairy and hog farms are at the highest risk of simultaneous exposure to the seasonal flu and the H5N1 bird flu that has infected at least 172 dairy herds in 13 states, the Agriculture Department said. Such exposures increase the rare risk that the two viruses could exchange genetic material, a process known as reassortment, to create a new influenza virus that “could pose a significant public health problem by spreading more efficiently and potentially becoming more severe,” Nirav Shah, the CDC’s deputy director, said at a news conference Tuesday. Widespread seasonal flu vaccination would reduce that risk, he said.

Thirteen farm workers have been infected in the outbreak so far, all of whom had mild symptoms and have recovered.

Although the federal government has 4.8 million doses of the H5N1 bird flu vaccine, officials are not recommending the new vaccine at this time because infected people have experienced mild symptoms, the virus is not transmitted between people, and the virus is not spread asymptomatically.

Some public health experts have called for vaccinating U.S. farmworkers against bird flu. Of the 13 U.S. workers infected in this year’s outbreak, nine were workers who killed infected birds at two Colorado poultry farms. Finland has indicated that it plans to offer preventive vaccination against bird flu to workers who come into contact with animals.

Tuesday put under pressure about As for why poultry farmers at highest risk for bird flu aren’t getting the H5N1 vaccine, Shah said discussions are still ongoing about the possibility. “I don’t think we should look at the introduction of a new vaccine through the lens of why not,” he said. “There has to be a strong and compelling argument to do something. Particularly because this is a new vaccine where the uptake may be unknown.”

The CDC also awards $5 million to community organizations such as the National Center for Farmworker Health for information and educational purposes.

The CDC will purchase the seasonal flu vaccines, and states can order them as needed. The vaccines will be administered through state health departments and community organizations at farms, churches, community centers and other places where workers gather.

Shah said there will be enough shots to vaccinate every rancher in the country if they want it. But less than half of the U.S. population typically gets the seasonal flu shot each year.