I keep hearing I should get a flu shot to help prevent bird flu — but I thought flu shots only prevented illness from the particular strains the shot was designed for. Does getting a traditional flu shot do anything to prevent bird flu transmission?
I keep hearing I should get a flu shot to help prevent bird flu — but I thought flu shots only prevented illness from the particular strains the shot was designed for. Does getting a traditional flu shot do anything to prevent bird flu transmission?
The current flu shot is almost certainly not effective against the current HPAI A(H5N1) strain that is in the news and making life hard for dairy and poultry farms. There likely won’t be a vaccine developed for it unless it mutates to become human-to-human transmissible. Currently, people can only contract it from exposure to sick animals or their environment. As long as you avoid contact with sick birds or cattle (or their bodily fluids or feces) you should be safe from contracting it… unless it mutates.
It has also killed at least one cat who had eaten infected chicken:
https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/avian-influenza-bird-flu/oregon-avian-flu-cat-death-prompts-nationwide-raw-pet-food-recall
It’s a whole different and horrific issue for cats. It’s also killed at least two whose owners them raw milk. It’s apparently about 67% lethal for cats.