Sixty-seven people across 10 states in the United States have been infected with H5N1 bird flu, and one person has died.

CDC. H5 Bird Flu: Current Situation. January 17, 2025.

Louisiana Department of Health. LDH reports first U.S. H5N1-related human death. January 6, 2025.

The CDC still stresses that the risk to the general public is low and that those impacted have mainly been dairy and poultry workers.

“We already have some avian flu vaccine candidates out there, [but] in my opinion, it hasn't reached the level where we would be performing widespread vaccination of the general public—or even vaccination of farm workers—since there's been [fewer] than 100 cases […] so far. But it's certainly something to be prepared for and to keep in mind,” Dean Blumberg, MD, Chief of Pediatric Infectious Diseases at UC Davis Health, tells MDLinx. “If we saw more widespread transmission among farm workers, then perhaps we could have targeted vaccination.”

Obviously, if we saw more severe disease, that would warrant vaccination, and certainly if we do get the development or indications of human-to-human transmission, then that would warrant consideration of vaccination of the general population.

Current status on vaccines

As part of pandemic preparedness, the CDC regularly develops candidate vaccine viruses (CVVs) that can be used by manufacturers to create a vaccine for novel avian influenza viruses that may cause pandemics.

CDC. Making a Candidate Vaccine Virus (CVV) for a HPAI (Bird Flu) Virus. May 3, 2024

The CDC has developed H5N1 bird flu CVVs that are nearly identical or identical to proteins in recently detected 2.3.4.4b avian influenza A viruses found in humans, birds, and other mammals.

CDC. Prevention and Antiviral Treatment of Avian Influenza A Viruses in People. July 19, 2024.

Early analysis suggests that if used in vaccination, these CVVs provide good protection against avian influenza viruses currently circulating.

Don't skip regular vaccinations

While the seasonal influenza vaccine won’t protect against H5N1 bird flu, vaccination still plays an important role, according to the CDC.

CDC. Prevention and Antiviral Treatment of Avian Influenza A Viruses in People. July 19, 2024.

“It is important that people who may have frequent exposure to infected or potentially infected birds or other animals get a seasonal flu vaccine, ideally 2 weeks before their potential exposure. This is because it can reduce the prevalence and severity of seasonal flu and might reduce the very rare risk of coinfection with a human seasonal virus and an avian virus at the same time, and the theoretical risk that reassortment between the two could result in a new virus,” the CDC stated.

“Such dual infections, while very rare, could theoretically result in genetic reassortment of the two different influenza A viruses and lead to a new influenza A virus that has a different combination of genes, and which could pose a significant public health concern,” the CDC added.