A child has tested positive for bird flu, a first in the US, US health officials announced today.

The child, who lives in Alameda County, on the San Francisco Bay Area, developed mild symptoms and was given antiviral treatment. No hospitalization was required, according to the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC) and California health authorities.

The viral load found in the child when he tested positive for H5N1 was low, meaning he was probably not infectious. Four days after the first positive result, the test came back negative. All of his family members tested negative.

As a precaution, local authorities recommended that workers and other children at the daycare center where the child attends be tested and treated.

In the US, daycare centers typically accept children from six weeks to five years of age.

“It’s natural for people to be concerned, but we want to reassure parents, workers and families that, based on the information and data we have, we do not believe the child was infectious,” said Thomas Aragon, the director of the health department. of California service. He also underlined that for at least 15 years, no case of human-to-human transmission of bird flu has been recorded in any country.

Avian influenza A (H5N1) first appeared in 1996 but after 2020 cases in birds have increased and many mammals have been affected by the disease. In March, many cows across the US also tested positive for the virus.

Health authorities still assess the risk to public health to be low. Those who work with birds, cows and other animals are at greater risk of becoming infected.

The CDC recalled that, including the child, there have been 55 human-to-human cases in the US this year, 29 of them in California.