California child who experienced fever and vomiting from raw milk does not have bird flu, CDC testing shows
Bird flu was not likely what sickened a California child after drinking raw milk, according to initial tests by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a source close to the investigation told CBS News Wednesday.
Health officials in California's Marin County said Tuesday the child experienced fever and vomiting after drinking the unpasteurized milk and warned others against consuming any raw milk products.
"The child has recovered, and no other family members became sick, indicating no person-to person transmission," Marin County Public Health said in a statement.
Risk to the public remains low, the statement added, but the local health department is working with the California Department of Public Health and the CDC to investigate the case.
This suspected case comes less than a month after another California child was confirmed to be the first U.S. child infected with bird flu — though the cause of that infection remains unknown. The child, whose age was not disclosed, had mild respiratory symptoms.
More than 50 human cases of a bird flu variant have been confirmed across seven states this year, 32 of which were reported in California.
While no cases of bird flu virus have currently been confirmed in people who drank raw milk, health officials have long warned against consuming unpasteurized milk because it can contain illness-causing bacteria. Pasteurized milk, which is heat-treated to kill the virus, remains safe to drink
On Friday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture issued a new federal order requiring raw, unpasteurized milk samples nationwide to be tested. The order builds on previous actions taken for the outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza, or HPAI H5N1, in dairy cattle that was first detected in March,
