The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) officially ended its emergency declaration for the H5N1 avian flu citing no reported human infections in five months.
A Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) spokesperson said the emergency bird flu response had been "deactivated to transition back to regular program activity" last week due to declining animal infections and no human cases having been reported since February.
"As reports of animal infections with avian influenza A(H5N1) virus ("H5N1 bird flu") have declined and no human cases have been reported since February 2025, on July 2, 2025, CDC's H5N1 emergency bird flu response was deactivated to transition back to regular program activity," the spokesperson said in an official statement adding, "Surveillance, readiness, and response for influenza, including H5N1 bird flu cases, will continue under the purview of CDC's Influenza Division and other appropriate agency programs."
In April of 2024, the CDC issued a health alert to inform the public and health care centers of a confirmed human infection of H5N1 in a dairy farm worker in Texas. Since that time there have been 70 cases throughout the U.S.
Dr. Nirav Shah, who resigned earlier this year from the CDC, told CNN he agrees with ending the emergency response. "This was not something that was imposed from the top down. It was initiated by the career scientists at CDC," Shah said.
"The rationale is, in short, there haven't been any human cases. And so there is not the need to sprint all-out every single day when there haven't been human cases in a while. If there were to be more human cases, it is very easy to ratchet back up the level of the intensity of the response. It can literally be done in an afternoon."
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