The Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources (MDAR) said yesterday that it, along with the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH), has completed H5N1 avian flu testing of all 95 licensed dairy farms in the state, with no positive samples found.

In a statement, MDAR said it is the only state in the nation to test all dairy herds and find no evidence of H5N1 infection. 

Massachusetts officials said they decided to test all herds to protect public health and to demonstrate the safety of the food supply from the state’s farms. MDAR inspectors visited the dairies in August to collect samples from bulk-milk tanks. The DPH worked with the Broad Institute at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University to test samples at no cost to farmers.

A few states, including Colorado and California, have done bulk-milk tank testing as part of enhanced surveillance in outbreak settings.

USDA confirms another affected herd in California

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has confirmed one more H5N1 outbreak in dairy cattle, which involved another herd from California. The state now has 10 infected herds, which are all located in the Central Valley. 

The latest confirmation lifts the nation’s number of confirmed outbreaks to 208 across 14 states.

The World Health Organization (WHO) yesterday released new guidance to help countries address key gender disparities in the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of drug-resistant infections.

The document provides a summary of the evidence on antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and gender and proposes recommendations for policymakers to consider when they develop, revise, implement, and monitor their national AMR action plans. 

"Gender influences people's exposure to infections, what they do to prevent infections and whether they seek timely care or try to treat themselves," Anand Balachandran, Unit Head for National Action Plans and Monitoring and Evaluation in WHO's AMR division, said in a press release. "Yet the majority of national action plans on AMR do not mention sex or gender."

More antibiotic exposure for women, girls

Among the key findings of the report are that lack of clean water and safe sanitation in the community and health facilities puts women and girls at increased risk of exposure to drug-resistant infections because of their menstrual hygiene needs, more frequent contact with the healthcare system, and their responsibility for household water provision. Women are also at heightened risk of an AMR infection because they represent 70% of the global workforce. 

On the other side, male-dominated professions such as animal husbandry, industrial farming, and slaughterhouse work can expose men to antibiotics and drug-resistant pathogens, while men's roles as primary income earners can contribute to their delaying diagnosis and treatment of resistant infections. 

Gender influences people's exposure to infections, what they do to prevent infections and whether they seek timely care or try to treat themselves.

Meanwhile, stigma and negative experiences with the healthcare system can deter both men and women from seeking diagnosis and treatment of sexually transmitted and urinary tract infections. 

The WHO also found that women are 27% more likely to receive antibiotics throughout their lifetime than men, female doctors take a more conservative approach to antibiotic prescribing than their male counterparts, and antibiotic recommendations made by male pharmacists are more likely to be accepted than those made by female pharmacists.

The guidance includes 20 recommendations aimed at identifying and addressing gender-specific vulnerabilities, embedding gender analysis into AMR research, incorporating policies that strive for gender equality into national AMR action plans, and promoting equitable access to antibiotics.

• China has reported another human case involving H9N2 avian influenza, its sixth of the year, according to the latest weekly avian influenza update from Hong Kong’s Centre for Health Protection. The patient is a 3-year-old girl from Guangdong province in the southern part of the country. Her symptoms began on August 12. No details were available about her condition or how she contracted the virus. H9N2 is a low-pathogenic virus in poultry in many countries, including China. Many of the earlier illnesses involved contact with poultry or poultry environments. The illnesses are often mild and often involve children. 
• The Florida Department of Health (Florida Health) recently issued a mosquito-borne illness advisory for Palm Beach County following the confirmation of a locally acquired dengue infection. The state typically reports sporadic local cases, and the latest case marks the first of the year from Palm Beach County. In its surveillance update last week, Florida Health reported 31 local cases from six counties this year, of which 21 were from Miami-Dade County. Other affected counties include Hillsborough, Manatee, Monroe, Orange, and Pasco.
• The National Institutes of Health has established a pandemic preparedness research network with a goal of developing vaccines and monoclonal antibodies, and the group recently announced award recipients to make up the Research and Development of Vaccines and Monoclonal Antibodies for Pandemic Preparedness (ReVAMPP) network. The group will focus on five virus families:  Bunyavirales, Flaviviridae, Flaviviridae, Picornaviridae, and Togaviridae. The Research Triangle Institute in Durham, NC, will coordinate the network, which also includes projects at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, the University of California, Irvine, the University of Texas Medical Branch, the University of Washington, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, and Washington University, St. Louis.