U.S. California declares state of emergency over bird flu

LOS ANGELES, Dec. 18 (Xinhua) -- California Governor Gavin Newsom on Wednesday declared a state of emergency in response to the outbreak of Avian influenza A (H5N1), commonly known as bird flu, which has infected 34 people in the Golden State.

According to the governor's office, this action came as cases were detected in dairy cows on farms in Southern California, "signaling the need to further expand monitoring and build on the coordinated statewide approach to contain and mitigate the spread of the virus."

To date, no person-to-person spread of bird flu has been detected in California and nearly all infected individuals had exposure to infected cattle, a press release from the office said, adding the state had already established the largest testing and monitoring system in the country to respond to the outbreak.

As of Wednesday, the H5N1 virus has spread in 16 states among dairy cattle, following its first confirmed detection in Texas and Kansas in March 2024, data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) showed.

There have been 61 human H5N1 cases nationwide of bird flu since April as the CDC on Wednesday confirmed a person in Louisiana had been hospitalized with a "severe" case of the disease.

Bird flu was first detected in the United States in the wild bird population in South Carolina in January 2022, and in the wild bird population in California in July 2022.