Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) epidemic response team head Dr Sylvain Aldighieri said the threat being posed by outbreaks of the H5N1 (avian influenza or bird flu) virus in the region of the Americas is the potential transmission from animal to human.

Speaking during a virtual PAHO media conference on Thursday, Aldighieri said the region of the Americas is clearly facing a very quickly evolving situation regarding the spread of H5N1.

“We have signals and reports from South, Central, and North America regarding cases and outbreaks in animal populations. In this context, PAHO together with other agencies is monitoring the situation in both sectors, human and animal health.

“Regarding animal health, we have to ensure there is strengthened surveillance in both the production sector, including the farms, and in wildlife. I’d like to really stress the need to focus our work on the production sector, surveillance in farms, including potential cases in workers of these farms.”

He said the threat of the virus is not related to a single specific strain or genotype.

“We are clearly in the context where both the Health Ministry and the Agriculture Ministry have to work together to track the spread and detect changes in patterns of transmission, including potential cases in the human population. The new tools expanded during the response to covid19, related to genomic sequencing, which are key for the characterisation of the virus, including detection of mutations and reassortment of genes, that can trigger the adaptation of a new genotype to the human population, will be key here.”