CDC Assesses H5N1 Risk to Individual and Population Health to Be Low

According to the latest indications from CDC’s Influenza Risk Assessment Tool (IRAT), the ongoing U.S. multistate H5N1 outbreak poses low risk to individual and population health. CDC's website has more information.

IRAT assessments are performed by seeking “expert opinion to score several characteristics of a representative influenza A virus. Together these scores indicate the likelihood that a virus will gain the ability to spread from person-to-person and the potential public health impact if that were to happen.”

The latest IRAT, performed on the H5N1 virus “isolated from a person in Texas,” indicates that “the overall future potential pandemic risk of H5N1 virus remains moderate and supports the ongoing, coordinated U.S. government response” despite the low risk to individual and population health. The score has not “significantly changed from the most recent assessment done on a similar H5N1 virus that caused an outbreak among mink in Spain in 2023.”

Healthcare Purchasing News has previously reported on the H5N1 outbreak – both its features and governmental responses to monitor it.