Bird flu spreads to Southern California, infecting chickens, wild birds and other animals. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
The new strain of bird flu has spread internationally, killing thousands of people around the world, and now the US is getting sick as well.
The virus, H5N1, seems to be taking hold in California as it has here for more than 2 weeks.
This photo taken today shows a dead migratory bird in a cornfield in Iowa. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik)
But according to the CDC, it is not just birds that are infected:
The virus has infected people throughout the United States, killing at least six people there and sickening many more. No information on the spread of the virus in California has been released so far.
But one of the first victims was a Californian who flew to the Midwest this week and recently returned home.
The sick man, who did not want to be identified, returned to a ranch near Fresno this week and told his family that he had symptoms like flu, but was not sick enough to visit the doctor:
“He told us what he had was a bad cold and that he had a fever of a 102 degrees,” said his daughter, Karen Smith. “We kind of had a few scares thinking he was having an El Nino type of weather and he had the flu. When he got home he said the only thing he had was a fever and he could not walk.”
But when family and friends checked him and there wasn’t an obvious fever, they took him to a specialist in Fresno, who could not detect anything wrong with him.
The specialist said that the only thing missing was a doctor that could test the man to confirm if it was the bird flu.
His home is being treated by the state and a local veterinarian.
What is the CDC doing about it?
