Federal money has started flowing to the city’s public hospital system to prepare for a potential bird flu outbreak among humans as the virus continues to impact dairy cow herds and bird flocks across the U.S.
New York City Health + Hospitals/Bellevue is set to receive $2 million from the federal government to develop tools to prepare for a potential bird flu outbreak in humans, the hospital said Monday. The hospital will use the money to educate staff on symptoms and diagnostics, develop testing protocols and establish clinical guidelines in case the virus starts to spread locally, said Dr. Syra Madad, chief biopreparedness officer at H+H. Bellevue will disseminate its protocols to hospitals and public health partners locally and across the U.S.
The risk of a bird flu outbreak among New Yorkers is still very low, Madad said. But the funding will help the hospital put protocols in place ahead of time so that clinicians do not have to rush planning if the disease starts to spread.
Bird flu, caused by the H5N1 virus, has primarily decimated dairy herds and poultry flocks nationwide, but at least 66 people have contracted the disease. Public health experts raised alarms about the continued public health threat after a man in Louisiana died from bird flu earlier this month, becoming the first person in the U.S. to succumb to the illness.
The federal government has ramped up funding as the virus continues to spread. The grant to H+H is part of a $306 million allocation from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services earlier this month for federal bird flu response.
Bellevue is getting the funding through its participation in a national consortium that responds to emerging infectious diseases, called the National Emerging Special Pathogens Training and Education Center. The hospital is one of 13 health care institutions that has been designated through the program, which formed in 2015 after the Ebola outbreak. Bellevue leads special pathogen response for the region including New York, New Jersey, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Hospital preparedness is one piece of the national response to bird flu, but Madad added that ramping up surveillance, such as testing of cows and birds, as well as public health efforts that stop the virus from spreading to people are critical to address the threat.
“A lot of work continues to need to happen to prevent spillover from animals to humans,” Madad said. “We need to make sure there’s a barrier in place, and we don’t ever cross that barrier.”
