WHO recommends drinking only pasteurized milk to avoid bird flu viruses

WHO recommends drinking only pasteurized milk to avoid bird flu viruses

New cases of the disease have worried the health authority, which calls for caution and care in consumption.

New cases of bird flu have emerged occasionally, but frequently enough to cause concern for health authorities. This Friday, April 19, the World Health Organization (WHO) recommended the consumption of pasteurized milk after the discovery of strong concentrations of the H5N1 virus (which causes bird flu) in cows’ milk in the United States.

Experts are investigating how long the virus lasts in this food. Even in the light of new data, caution is therefore called for. “As studies are ongoing, it is important that people practice safe eating practices, including consuming only pasteurized milk,” said Wenqing Zhang, in charge of the flu program, cited by “Observador”.

There are several affected herds in several North American states, which means that we are in a “new stage in the spread of the virus to mammals”. To avoid contagion, experts advise that you only drink milk that has been pasteurized, that is, heated to a certain temperature and then cooled quickly. This method kills any trace of the H5N1 virus. Anyone who buys packaged milk can rest assured because it has been ultra-pasteurized to begin with.

First detected in Ireland in 1983, H5N8 appeared sporadically until the first major outbreak, which occurred in 2014 in South Korea and forced the slaughter of more than 600,000 birds. Outbreaks occurred all over the world — normally transmitted by migratory birds.

The H1N1 subtype is perhaps the most famous, the virus that caused the pandemic in 1918, which caused millions of deaths around the world. When it comes to bird flu, we are talking about the H5N1 subtype, a variant that adapted to transmission between birds and was a cause for concern, but which mysteriously slowed down in 2017.

According to the WHO, between January 2023 and April 2024, 889 human cases of bird flu were recorded in 23 countries. They resulted in 463 deaths, raising the mortality rate to 52 percent. The animals were not immune either. In March, cows and goats joined the list of animals susceptible to this type of flu.