The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are currently California In a project that offers gift cards to encourage people to get tested or vaccinated near farms. Bird flusays the state.
Some clinics in the state are offering $25 gift cards to people in the community to be wiped off due to a potential avian flu infection or to get shots of the regular seasonal flu vaccine.
California offers gift cards at clinics run by state vendors. The CDC also has a bird flu area monitoring test from agencies that provide testing on some sites, or a test van for the AFAST project.
“Gift card funds come from the California State of Avian Influenza Emergency Declaration Fund. The CDC only tests and does not provide incentives of any kind,” a spokesman for the California Department of Public Health said in an email.
The effort runs counter to rumors on social media that the state has stopped testing symptomatic farm workers. Bird fluat the request of the CDC under the secretary of the Ministry of Health and Human Services. Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
“There was no change in the guidance to test suspected cases. If a worker with symptoms that have not been referred or tested for H5N1 is not recognized and H5N1 is suspected, the chances of the test being denied are very unlikely,” a California spokesperson said.
A CDC spokesman also said their guidance has not been changed. Agents continue to recommend that people with symptoms seek tests from their doctors or local health departments.
Authorities in nearby Nevada told CBS News they continue to provide testing and treatment to farm workers exposed to avian influenza in animals. In Idaho, another state that saw the avian flu on its farm, officials said they had not heard that symptomatic workers would not be discouraged from getting tested.
“We have no knowledge of this event and have never heard of any recent reports of symptomatic workers,” Idaho Department of Health and Human Services spokesman AJ McWhorter said in an email.
The lab, run by state and local health departments, is usually the first to perform initial testing for avian flu before transferring samples to the CDC for confirmation. The Health Department will usually announce these “estimated” detections, even if they are found not to be confirmed later.
In addition to testing people exposed to the virus on farms, California said it continues to check whether other flu cases in the state are caused by avian flu.
“All samples we have tested so far have been identified as seasonal subtypes H1 or H3 that eliminate H5N1 (avian influenza) infections. It is reassuring to the fact that no other human cases of H5N1 have been identified through subtyping efforts,” a California spokesman said.
