US Spends $300 Million Bracing For Bird Flu

Over $300 million will be spent to protect the U.S. from bird flu, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has announced.

Despite the risk to humans remaining low, HHS has pledged $306 million to its response to the highly pathogenic avian influenza A(H5N1) virus, also known as H5N1 bird flu.

This money will be awarded to bodies at federal, state and local levels in order to prevent the spread of the virus to animals, people and food.

“While the risk to humans remains low, we are always preparing for any possible scenario that could arise,” Xavier Becerra, Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, said in a statement.

“These investments are critical to continuing our disease surveillance, laboratory testing, and monitoring efforts alongside our partners at USDA.”

$183 million of this budget will be allocated by the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response towards preparedness programs and training hospitals and other healthcare facilities to deal with emerging pathogens—and H5N1 bird flu specifically.

The CDC will use $111 million of the money for the monitoring of H5N1 bird flu across the country, including to test high-risk individuals such as livestock workers. $11 million will go to the NIH, where it will be used to fund research into medical treatments and prevention for H5N1 bird flu.

“Preparedness is the key to keeping Americans healthy and our country safe. We will continue to ensure our response is strong, well equipped and ready for whatever is needed,” Becerra said.

H5N1 is a strain of bird flu that has seen a huge spike in infections in birds, cattle and humans—as well as a number of other species—in recent months.

CDC data shows that 66 people have tested positive for the virus since the start of 2024, 40 of which resulted from exposure to infected cattle, with 23 others associated with poultry farms. There have been no cases that have resulted from human-to-human transmission thus far.

“While the current public health risk is low, CDC is watching the situation carefully and working with states to monitor people with animal exposures,” the CDC said.

California has the highest number of cases at 37, with Washington and Colorado in second and third place with 11 and 10 cases respectively. Iowa, Louisiana, Michigan, Missouri, Oregon, Texas and Wisconsin are the only other states to report H5N1 cases so far, and each has one or two cases.

The first severe H5N1 case in a human was announced on December 18, with the affected individual having been infected after exposure to sick and dead birds in backyard flocks.

“A patient has been hospitalized with a severe case of avian influenza A(H5N1) virus (‘H5N1 bird flu’) infection in Louisiana,” the CDC said in a statement in December.

“This is the first case of H5N1 bird flu in the U.S. that has been linked to exposure to a backyard flock.”

There is some concern that H5N1 bird flu could soon mutate and become much more transmissible between humans.

“The more encounters the virus has with humans, the more chances it has to adapt to growing in them, and if it can mix and match its genes with a human seasonal flu, that could accelerate this process,” Edward Hutchinson, a professor of virology at the University of Glasgow, previously told Newsweek.

“When an influenza virus from a different animal adapts to spread effectively among humans, the result is pandemic.”

This outcome could be very serious, as H5N1 bird flu mortality rates are currently estimated to be as high as 50 percent in humans. However, none of the people infected with the virus in the U.S. in recent months has died.

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