Bird flu, also known as H5N1, has been around for decades. But a discovery in 2024 came as a surprise to public health ...

the CDC maintains that “testing of asymptomatic persons” for H5N1 “is not routinely recommended,” and close contacts of infected people aren’t guaranteed a screen for the virus.

Officials this year have identified 16 people infected with H5N1 avian influenza. All have had mild symptoms. There has been no human-to-human spread of the virus. If that happened, public health ...