A child who visited Marin County during Thanksgiving week is being tested for a possible infection of .
H5N1, the bird fluMarin’s public health officer, Dr. Lisa Santora, said the child tested positive for influenza type A at a hospital. The type A category includes bird flu. The child had been visiting from out of state for the holiday.
“Additional local and state testing was unable to confirm if a seasonal flu or avian flu subtypes,” Santora said.
The staff submitted a specimen from the patient to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC. The county expects to receive the test results by the end of the week, Santora said Monday.
RELATED: Maverick operator of California raw milk dairy could have role in Trump’s FDAH5N1, which typically infects poultry flocks and wild birds, has been transmitted to at least 58 people in the United States this year, according to the CDC. Thirty-two cases have been reported in California.
Authorities do not know the patient’s source of exposure, the Marin County public health staff reported.
A human case of H5N1 was reported in Alameda County last month.Symptoms of the virus in human cases include eye redness, mild flu-like symptoms, fever, pneumonia, fatigue and breathing difficulties, the CDC says.
