4 ms·
It is definitely possible to catch H5N1 flu from drinking unpasteurized milk. Early on in this dairy farm outbreak there was a group of barn cats that got sick
by more_corn 2y ago
It is definitely possible to catch H5N1 flu from drinking unpasteurized milk. Early on in this dairy farm outbreak there was a group of barn cats that got sick due to drinking milk of infected cows. 50% of them died.
There have been dozens of cases of farm workers getting sick by exposure to infected animals and their bodily fluids.
It’s estimated that 20-40% of dairy herds are infected and no effective controls are in place to prevent the spread.
So far there have been no human to human cases but if people keep drinking unpasteurized milk there certainly will be and then we’re in for pandemic two. Now with higher mortality rates!
- Terr_ 2y agoI think it's interesting/illustrative to imagine a world where we had perfect knowledge of the history of any infection: "Your initial infection began because you inhaled a droplet from James Smith on Tuesday at the grocery store, and he got it from..." While that would obviously be incredible from a research perspective, I'm thinking more about how it would change the way we view cause, effect, and individual responsibilities which people have towards not-harming their neighbors. Right now reckless people playing with infectious fire almost never pay for everything that gets burned down because of it, since it's so difficult to reconstruct what really happened.
- bjoli 2y agoThe odds of the next pandemic coming from a virus that spread in a domesticated population and then jumped to humans are low. Just look at how chicken are kept. Ar pigs. Even if you manage to disregard the moral question, it is impossible to disregard the zoonosis risk.