H5N1 Bird Flu: What You Need to Know About the Current Situation

This episode of "Your Checkup" provides an in-depth look at the current H5N1 bird flu situation, including recent outbreaks in the U.S. Learn how the virus spreads, who is at risk, and practical steps to protect yourself. We'll discuss food safety, how to handle sick or dead birds, and when to seek medical attention. Learn the difference between seasonal flu and bird flu, as well as current vaccine and treatment options for H5N1.

Keywords

Patient Education, Bird Flu, H5N1, Health Awareness, Public Health, CDC, Animal Health, Disease Prevention, Family Medicine, Veterinary Medicine

Transcript

Ed Delesky, MD (00:05)
Hi, welcome to your checkup. We are the Patient Education Podcast, where we bring conversations from the doctor's office to your ears. On this podcast, we try to bring medicine closer to its patients. I'm Ed Delesky a family medicine resident in the Philadelphia area.

Nicole Aruffo, RN (00:19)
and I'm Nicole Aruffo, I'm a nurse.

Ed Delesky, MD (00:21)
And we are so excited you were able to join us here again today. So before we were recording, we were talking, let's pick up right where we left off.

Nicole Aruffo, RN (00:30)
Yeah, I said we should get a sauna. Yeah. I mean, not in this house, but like when we move to the suburbs and have room.

Ed Delesky, MD (00:32)
These are all the rage now.

Sure. think I could, excuse me, could see a lot of places for a sauna in Mike's house. I could see it. And it's like, basement, basement dungeon. not the, his basement is in a dungeon. We've mentioned this basement before on this podcast, his beautiful man cave, but behind the closed doors, put a sauna in there. This recently came to light because we had that one patient who came back and saw me and she was like, yep.

My husband, beautiful man, he, if someone clipped this out of context, that'd be funny. My husband, beautiful man, he bought me a sauna and I'm sitting there, peace in my zen and I'm listening to your podcast, which I thought was a huge compliment.

Nicole Aruffo, RN (01:23)
I saw they have them at Costco actually. I miss Costco. I know, I want to go back to being Costco people. Costco is better. Well.

Ed Delesky, MD (01:25)
Really?

I was never a Costco person.

Well, what's the big difference?

Nicole Aruffo, RN (01:37)
Well, Costco is the superior store. And that's that on that.

Ed Delesky, MD (01:43)
That's just the final word. What do you think, Hot take from the intern. He thinks Sam's Club better.

Nicole Aruffo, RN (01:50)
he didn't say that.

Ed Delesky, MD (01:52)
In fact, he didn't say anything. we were so Ali goes to the groomer. Well, he's been to the groomer once and it's a doggy style right down the street. And we had we met this guy. Tell us what was his name?

Nicole Aruffo, RN (02:09)
Well, his name is Aiden. We call him Uncle Aiden.

Ed Delesky, MD (02:12)
We use his first name because like there's no reason to not. Yeah,

so we actually so because Nikki is a little nervous, you know, we went back and we watched the entire grooming session. Now, like some people.

Nicole Aruffo, RN (02:24)
Yeah, I did. paid $10 extra to do the owner observe session. You can't trust people. I don't care. They offer it. that's all right.

Ed Delesky, MD (02:29)
Well, they were a little disturbed by that upfront. We're going

to do and you paid for it. So we just paid to make his life more uncomfortable. But this guy was great. He was super nice to Ali. He was very gentle with them. Now, mind you, this was months ago. Like this was before his surgery, probably like last year, last year, not in January, but like before the summer. I don't know when it was exactly, but it was a long time ago. But this guy made such an impression that

We keep thinking about Uncle Aiden and just like kind of walking by the grocery, not the grocery store, walking by doggy style pet shop. Like, I wonder if that guy's working in there. It kind of had a curmudgeon manager.

Nicole Aruffo, RN (03:11)
Yeah, you did.

Ed Delesky, MD (03:13)
And this guy's just out here trying to groom. But he's a multifaceted man. Because we go to Trader Joe's, and we're in the line waiting to go, you know, all these people are standing there. They're like, oh, they'll hold up the sign. And they're like, number 14, number 11, I'm going to check you out.

Nicole Aruffo, RN (03:18)
my God.

Ed Delesky, MD (03:32)
And there we see him. I see this figure with a similar silhouette, similar height, weight, build. I'm like, Nick, is that Uncle Aiden?

Nicole Aruffo, RN (03:42)
you

Ed Delesky, MD (03:47)
And this man, sure, he could probably have multiple jobs. I don't know if he's working at Doggie Style anymore, but there we saw him after months of wondering where he was. And he was probably thinking about Ollie. Now he didn't check us out that day, but we felt compelled to tell him about everything that Ollie's been through.

Nicole Aruffo, RN (04:04)
Yeah, well he did say when he was grooming him he was like, Ollie's way better behaved than this other corgi that he also grooms.

Ed Delesky, MD (04:12)
Yeah, so like, we all of course knew that Ali, who is snoozing right next to us, is way better than the neighborhood corgis.

Nicole Aruffo, RN (04:18)
Maybe we could take him to get his nails cut or like grinded. I hate cutting his nails.

Ed Delesky, MD (04:27)
Why do you hate cutting his nails?

Nicole Aruffo, RN (04:29)
Because the ones that are black and like you can't really tell where the quick is so you have to do it like one little sliver at a time and every time you snip it it's like is this gonna be it and I'm gonna make him bleed.

Ed Delesky, MD (04:42)
Has this ever happened to you before?

Nicole Aruffo, RN (04:45)
Only once. And it was like the tiniest little bit and he didn't even like cry or anything.

Ed Delesky, MD (04:52)
So he ended up being okay.

Nicole Aruffo, RN (04:53)
I was not and that's all that matters.

Ed Delesky, MD (04:57)
Sounds like we're going to get his nails cut at the groomer.

Nicole Aruffo, RN (04:59)
But they do like the grind, like they like grind them instead of cutting them.

Ed Delesky, MD (05:06)
mean, that's a quick thing. Look, these groomers are not cheap, I'll say. He's worth it. He's so worth it. But do you think they'll just...

Nicole Aruffo, RN (05:13)
Or we can just take him back to the surgeon's office because they always cut his nails.

Ed Delesky, MD (05:17)
He was like, can you just check him out and make sure he's OK? then they like complimentary nail cut. Yeah. So that's about that. I think we're at our just about five minute mark. Was there anything else that you wanted to jump in? I'm very sorry that normally Nikki is able to look over with an iPad and she can scroll through the notes and make.

Nicole Aruffo, RN (05:21)
And yeah.

Yeah, but someone didn't charge it. It's been sitting here dead on the table during our whole PTO week.

Ed Delesky, MD (05:43)
No, I didn't.

the

table. it was like two weeks. All right, Nick, what are we going to talk about today?

Nicole Aruffo, RN (05:53)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Today we're talking about something that's been getting a lot of buzz lately. The new strain of bird flu. It's all the hot goss.

Ed Delesky, MD (06:07)
It is the hot goss. And, you know, reasonably so after COVID. I think when people hear about a contagious disease, people get nervous. Yeah. And there's a lot of stuff that gets put out in the media.

Nicole Aruffo, RN (06:19)
Yeah, everyone's freaking out that there's going to be another pandemic.

Ed Delesky, MD (06:23)
But the headline is that I think we're okay from the bird flu. So we're talking about bird flu, like we said, because it's, you know.

Nicole Aruffo, RN (06:31)
because it's trending in the media.

Ed Delesky, MD (06:33)
It's trending

in the media. We think it's important to stay informed on emerging health issues. And you know, this bird flu, as they named it, it's called H5N1. It's normally a virus found primarily in birds. And there was a case that was recently discovered in the United States that was severe in nature. And so we're going to take some time today and we're going to kind of dive in and talk about what things to think about, what all of this kind of means, and what it can mean for you personally.

how to protect yourself, your loved ones, or Nikki, can you guide us through and talk to us a little bit about what the H5 bird flu is?

Nicole Aruffo, RN (07:07)
your neighbors.

So it's caused by bird influenza type A and it's shed in birds saliva mucus and feces so if a bird poops on you.

Ed Delesky, MD (07:26)
It used to be good luck, but not anymore.

Nicole Aruffo, RN (07:28)
out. And they're spread by other infected animals through respiratory secretions and other bodily fluids.

Ed Delesky, MD (07:39)
So we talked about how the virus is transferred from mostly in birds to other animals, but what about humans?

Nicole Aruffo, RN (07:47)
Human infections are very rare. And there's not like a human to human spreading.

Ed Delesky, MD (07:55)
Yeah, that's rather rare. So we're here in the current situation in the United States because this is something that's been in the emerging media. So a severe case of H5N1 was discovered and confirmed in Louisiana, and it was linked to backyard flocks. So this is a little bit of like in the weeds information, but the virus in Louisiana is the case of a D1.1 genotype, which is different than the one found in dairy cows.

The significance of that may not be so relevant to you listening here today, but other information includes that up to the time that we're recording, there are 66 confirmed human cases during this 2024 outbreak. And the H5 bird flu is really widespread in wild birds worldwide. And there continue to be outbreaks in here in the United States based in poultry and US dairy cows as well.

There are sporadic infections detected in other mammals. But like Nikki said, thankfully, there's really no person to person spread. So it's human to human spread of the H5N1 bird flu. so what they're seeing here, all this information that we're getting is that the US is monitoring it, and specifically the CDC, and finding no unusual bird flu activity in people, which is great because we don't need another viral infection.

causing a lot of problems. So take us through this information as of December 2024. Just what are some animal statistics that kind of show how common this is in animals?

Nicole Aruffo, RN (09:34)
All right, a couple of little statistics because we love a statistic. Starting off with our lowest number, just a touch over 900 dairy herds were affected in 16 states. And then we have almost 11,000, 10,917 wild birds were detected in 51 jurisdictions. And then the poultry. So in 50 states, there were.

128,907,392 affected poultry. The birds. In the US.

Ed Delesky, MD (10:10)
It's a lot.

That is a lot of birds. really talking about who is at higher risk. And I mean, this is the stuff to listen to if you haven't been listening already. Who is at higher risk? Those people who work or have recreational exposure to the infected animals. So these are backyard flock owners. We know one. We do. We do know one hunters, bird and.

Nicole Aruffo, RN (10:35)
He brought one of the fucking Jesus

Ed Delesky, MD (10:38)
my god, he did

Nicole Aruffo, RN (10:41)
We turned around and my cousin was just standing there with a chicken in his dining room.

Ed Delesky, MD (10:47)
Wow. Yeah. Who's the chicken? That was good, right? You like that? Yeah, it was great. And people who have direct or close contact with wild birds, sick or dead poultry. And so this increases the risk of, you know, an exposure. And that's what has been detected in these cases that have been found so far. So how to protect yourself. This is where the money is.

There's a lot of routine stuff in here, but we're going to go through step by step about the things you can do to reduce the chance that you're one of these very, very rare instances that end up getting bird flu, God forbid. So why don't you take the first one.

Nicole Aruffo, RN (11:26)
The first one, is kind of like a no-dots, avoiding exposure. Best prevention is avoiding exposure to affected animals. Like, yeah, obviously. Sure. If you to avoid something bad, you avoid the exposure to that thing.

Ed Delesky, MD (11:39)
Well, to jump on top of that, you avoid wild birds specifically. Look at them from a distance. And actually, be a good citizen. If there's a sick or a dead bird, I don't know how you're going to determine a bird that's sick. But if there's a dead bird, let someone know about it. Who? Not exactly sure. I think the CDC does have a phone number.

Nicole Aruffo, RN (11:58)
If you do need to come in contact with these animals, recommend wearing some personal protective equipment like gloves, eye protection, and a good old N95.

Ed Delesky, MD (12:12)
Wow, bringing them back. I do think when I was reading to prepare for this that they suggested that like, the people you call may direct you to get rid of the bird. So you may be called on a, you know, civil duty to get rid of an infected bird. Hopefully not. So the next thing is to avoid touching surfaces contaminated by infected animals. Basically, they're saliva, mucus or feces. So a lot of avoidance here. Like we said, nothing

No rocket science here. A lot of people are facile with this stuff from COVID. but you, Eenie Meenie Minie Moe, you got the good one. This is actually, I think a lot of people, this came into my mind when we were thinking about it, making this episode. And I mean, you can't help but think that like there's poultry and dairy we're talking about. So tell us a little bit about food safety.

Nicole Aruffo, RN (13:03)
Yeah, I mean, this is also just like basic food safety to avoid raw milk and products from infected animals. We're cooking our poultry and eggs to 165 degrees Fahrenheit, which until I read this, I didn't realize there was a cooking temperature for eggs. there is. I don't know. Might have to do another little deep dive on that. I've just never heard that before, have you?

Ed Delesky, MD (13:30)
Not specifically a temperature. I think that's tough to capture. Yeah. With it being in a shell and stuff. Am I dumb?

Nicole Aruffo, RN (13:37)
Well, if it's cooked out of the shell.

Ed Delesky, MD (13:41)
Pardon me, because we've been eating hard boiled eggs every morning.

Nicole Aruffo, RN (13:46)
Take the temperature of our eggs tomorrow. But like, we put it in an ice bath.

Ed Delesky, MD (13:52)
You know, we do. Do we even have a thermometer like that?

Nicole Aruffo, RN (13:56)
I don't think so. I don't think we do.

Ed Delesky, MD (13:59)
No, Mike asked if we had one. said no. For the listeners, let's keep going.

Nicole Aruffo, RN (14:05)
And then cook beef thoroughly and separate raw foods from cooked foods. another, yeah, duh, that's like what you do anyway, but just be a little more diligent about it.

Ed Delesky, MD (14:16)
The only thing I would add is that because we talked about those dairy cows, milk also comes from dairy cows and with great certainty the pasteurization process takes care of any potential infections in there. recently we are choosing pasteurized milk which I don't know why anyone wouldn't be. I'm sure there's

Nicole Aruffo, RN (14:35)
How

people love, there's a whole side of the internet of people who love unpasteurized milk.

Ed Delesky, MD (14:41)
Well, when it comes to this, we're choosing pasteurized milk. Great. I'll take the boring one. But important, always important, is hand hygiene. So we are washing our hands with soap and water, especially after an exposure to animal or animal products.

Nicole Aruffo, RN (14:57)
Do you ever like, well, you never get sick except for that one time like last week. I feel like sometimes I like have a cold or something. I'm always like, this is definitely from that one time I like could have washed my hands and I didn't. This is got me sick. Yeah. Really?

Ed Delesky, MD (15:14)
No, I do have this nagging cough from that one time, but I can't pinpoint where I got sick from.

Nicole Aruffo, RN (15:22)
I mean, it's not like a pinpoint, like I'm just like,

I should have just washed my hands more.

Ed Delesky, MD (15:29)
Okay, so it was an important one. It's like not sexy, but it's probably the most important one on the list. So Nikki, what are we going to do? We actually do have the information here. What are we going to do if you find a sick or a dead bird?

Nicole Aruffo, RN (15:40)
Well, we're going to avoid it or try to avoid it. Then we're going to call our probably state authority. there is a state fed. This is like not state veterinarian or you call the fed.

Ed Delesky, MD (15:45)
bird.

Call the feds and the dead bird carcass outside your house.

Nicole Aruffo, RN (16:01)
We do have a number here. 1-866-536-7593.

Ed Delesky, MD (16:07)
You made that like a jingle. That was great. We got to put you on a billboard or something.

Nicole Aruffo, RN (16:11)
my

god. And then it looks like, like you said earlier, they might instruct you to get rid of the bird. So don't go rogue. Wear some gloves. So my protection.

Ed Delesky, MD (16:26)
You

are whimsically being a good citizen. You're like, I'm going to call and someone's going to come pick up this bird. And then they're like, psych.

Nicole Aruffo, RN (16:33)
Like this is your job now. You're bird

Ed Delesky, MD (16:39)
man, I'll take this next one. So our next topic is what to do if you've had contact with an infected bird or animal and become sick. So the CDC is actually recommending that you isolate at home for 10 days, which is a long time. I would say take that up with your own doctor, avoid work or school until cleared by public health officials, contact local, state and health departments and a health care provider and

There may be H5N1 prescribed antiviral medicines. I haven't read too much about that. This is from the CDC website. I didn't really dive in too much.

Nicole Aruffo, RN (17:16)
Do we know what an infected animal might look like? Did you find that anywhere in our reading? Or you could cut this.

Ed Delesky, MD (17:27)
Well, the actual symptoms of H5N1 bird flu are fever, feeling feverish or chills, eye redness or irritation, respiratory symptoms such as cough, sore throat, runny nose, muscle or body aches, and tiredness. So basically like the routine flu symptoms. in an animal, I'm not, no, I don't know. I'm not sure. Maybe we have a vet on next time. And a quick word on treatment that a healthcare clinician may consider.

Nicole Aruffo, RN (17:42)
in never

Ed Delesky, MD (17:55)
They may use antiviral treatments and it may be on the the elk of a Tamiflu or Oseltamivir. But of note, vaccination for the routine seasonal flu vaccine won't protect against the bird flu, but it does decrease your risk of actual human influenza. so generalized recommendation is that you should get vaccinated for the flu. And you can listen to our old episode about that. The US government will develop the vaccines as we see off with.

COVID, they flip that around real quick to be able to. Well, we're not going to rev that engine here. So overall, in conclusion, I just want to reiterate that this is a public health risk, but it remains low overall. there's. We think it's going to be OK. The awareness is important. And this was, I I should have dated this episode when we did it initially. It is January 5th, 2025. I haven't said the year yet. And so.

Nicole Aruffo, RN (18:27)
Don't get people started on that.

Yeah. It's all going to be okay.

Ed Delesky, MD (18:53)
Keep looking at the CDC resources. You're probably going to find a lot of stuff online that like may push you in one direction or another. But look at the CDC. We think it's going to be OK. And so thanks for coming back to another episode of your checkup. Hopefully today you were able to learn something for yourself, a loved one or.

Nicole Aruffo, RN (19:00)
It's gonna be f-

a neighbor with the bird flow.

Ed Delesky, MD (19:16)
Of which there are only 66 of them currently.

Nicole Aruffo, RN (19:18)
If you know one of the 66 that's pretty cool

Ed Delesky, MD (19:21)
That must be pretty cool. And so we look forward to having you back next time so you can learn more about health and wellness and other topics, maybe current event or otherwise. Please follow us on Instagram, find us on TikTok, send us an email, yourcheckuppod at gmail.com. And we look forward to having you again next time. But until then, stay healthy, my friends. I'm Ed Delesky Thank you and goodbye. Bye.

Nicole Aruffo, RN (19:45)
I'm Nicole. Aruffo

Ed Delesky, MD (19:49)
This information may provide a brief overview of diagnosis, treatment, and medications. It's not exhaustive and is a tool to help you understand potential options about your health. It doesn't cover all details about conditions, treatments, or medications for a specific person. This is not medical advice or an attempt to substitute medical advice. You should contact a healthcare provider for personalized guidance based on your unique circumstances. We explicitly disclaim any liability relating to the information given or its use.

This content doesn't endorse any treatments or medications for a specific patient. Always talk to your healthcare provider for a complete information tailored to you. In short, I'm not your doctor. And make sure you go get your own checkup with your own personal doctor.

Nicole Aruffo, RN (20:26)
I am not your nurse.