her little name with the microphone I just don't want it to show up on the
shot
Veronica thinks it's alright. Okay we are streaming. Okay. Stand by. Stand by.
In public health news is bird flu or highly pathogenic avian influenza high
risk for livestock and poultry flocks but low risk for humans and could that
change for the latest on the status of bird flu outbreaks in Wisconsin we turn
to Tom Haupt influence research scientist at the Wisconsin Department of
Health Services and thanks very much for being here. Oh thank you Brad Rieke I
appreciate the invitation. What is the current status of bird flu outbreaks in
Wisconsin? Well we've had approximately four or five commercial outbreaks and
one backyard flop as far as human cases we have had only the one human case that
person has made a complete recovery. Thank goodness. As far as other testing
we've tested about three or four other people all have come back negative but
we continue to monitor very closely in conjunction with the Department of
Agriculture, Train Consumer Protection and the DNR to monitor all kinds of
wildlife any kind of blocks. We have had no cattle dairy farms in Wisconsin that
we have been affected so far. We're hoping it stays that way. Could there be
more human cases out there that people just haven't been tested or they think
they've got a cold or you know what are the concerns about that? That definitely
could be the case and especially now when influenza has starting to spike the way
it has been over the past couple of weeks. I mean we've overdoubled our
number of cases for seasonal influenza over the past few weeks so there could
be some people who probably should be tested but are not being tested but we
really are trying to be very conservative on this and make sure that we try to
capture everybody who may have had exposure make sure that they are tested
for flu. Speaking of flu and seasonal influenza I understand that the CDC
provided flu vaccines to 12 states that also were affected by bird flu to
prevent this kind of co-infection of both the human flu and the bird flu
that could lead to kind of emerging variants of that that could be a more
transmissible. Why didn't Wisconsin participate in that CDC vaccine program?
It actually was not a Wisconsin decision. There was like six initial
states that were categorized to get it at first. We're hoping to be part of the
second or third round to get this vaccine from the CDC but again it was not in our
hands. How worrisome is it from a public health standpoint that
co-infection of these two different influenzos? Anytime you have co-infections
it's always a concern whether it's with avian influenza and seasonal
influenza, COVID, RSV, whatever the case may be. The more pathogens that actually
are infecting a person the more severe the outcome could be which could lead to
hospitalization and unfortunately deaths and that's what we're trying to
prevent making sure we're getting people tested in a timely manner at a proper
laboratory which now is the Wisconsin state laboratory of hygiene. To get that
information and to get those tests run as quickly as possible but yes it
definitely could be a concern. What's the best advice for people as we head into
the peak of the seasonal flu season here in the midst of this kind of avian
influenza outbreak? Well we need to control what we can control and that's
two things. One is to get the vaccine for influenza. Our numbers are a little bit
low they're about 30.7% which is just a couple percentage points lower than what
it was last year which is a bit disappointing to be honest with you. We
need to do a better job because we are optimistic that the vaccine is going to
be effective in preventing severe illness and in many cases it'll be
effective in preventing illness altogether. The other thing is to practice
good hygiene coughing into your sleeve sneezing into a tissue throwing it away
right away washing your hands and above all if people do get sick
stay home and give yourself the time to heal. Too many people think it's just
the allergies or as you said just the minor cold they could be infecting
someone who could be at high risk and that person could actually result in
becoming hospitalized and hopefully and not and really hopefully it's not
that it won't result in any kind of fatalities. As for the avian
influenza what should people be looking for to see whether or not that might be
what they have? Yeah it's very hard to say at this point.
One thing that we do definitely look at at the state is do you have an exposure?
Do you have an exposure to any kind of birds that with a die off whether they
be wild birds, poultry, anything like that? Do they work on a farm
you know on a dairy farm where maybe the cows are not producing the milk
the way they're supposed to be doing or their the milk is very unusual.
I mean those are the people who come down to symptoms where we really want them
to consider testing calling the local or state health
departments we can arrange for testing to be done
as quickly as possible but the symptoms it could be very
vague. I mean it could be just conjunctivitis
it could be just an upper respiratory mild upper respiratory illness
it's really not a precise symptomology
who are new dealing with HPAI. I've had the age being in influenza.
Well I know you will be watching this on all of our behaves. Tom Hopped thank you
very much. And thank you Frederick I appreciate it.
Yeah. Thank you sir. Have a good weekend. Not a problem.
Nice to see you. Always good to talk with you. You too.
All right. Thank you. Bye.