Health
Freedom From Ulcerative Colitis With an Ostomy Pouch
Ulcerative colitis (UC) was driving Danielle Gulden to the bathroom up to 25 times a day. Medication after medication failed to control her bloody diarrhea, cramps, and other severe symptoms. And life stayed that way throughout her 20s and early 30s until a device called an “ostomy pouch” made all the difference.
“Normal for me was … insane amounts of pain, and always worried and anxious,” says Gulden, now 45 and working in medical sales in Columbus, OH.
She did her best to take charge of her UC with humor and ingenuity. Faced with the prospect of making white-knuckled road trips to visit her parents and in-laws, she and her husband, Dave, had a fully functional toilet installed in the backseat of their car — complete with curtains and tinted windows for privacy.
“We took the seat out, and we bought … the nicest camping toilet you could buy,” she says. “We had a magazine rack. We had a little toilet paper holder. And it was the best thing ever.”
It wasn’t enough. Ulcerative colitis, a disease that causes inflammation and ulcers in the lining of your colon, had been making Gulden sick since the mid-’90s. It kept her from being spontaneous and social, and stopped her from tackling the jobs she wanted. Worse, she felt like she wasn’t being a good enough parent to her young daughter, Lauren.
Rather than try more medications, she opted for surgery. In 2007, she got an operation called a “proctocolectomy with end ileostomy.” This surgery and others like it are sometimes called a “permanent ostomy.”
Gulden’s surgeon removed her colon (large intestine), rectum, and anus. Then they connected the lowest part of her small intestine to an opening about the size of a quarter that they created in her belly, called a stoma.
Now waste leaves Gulden’s body through the stoma and into an ostomy pouch. It’s a type of bag that’s covered by a removable barrier that sticks to skin and forms a seal. You empty the bag periodically and replace it with a new one every few days.
Gulden calls her operation miraculous. Within a day of surgery, she started to feel much better. Within 3 weeks, she enjoyed a baseball game at the ballpark. Within 2 months, she went to her first outdoor concert, not caring where the bathrooms were.
“I was a little sore, but I was out,” she says. “And it was such a freeing experience. To this day, when I talk about it, I get kind of choked up. Because … I didn’t realize how sick and how unwell that I had been until I had my surgery.”
An ostomy pouch can give someone with severe ulcerative colitis their life back, says Yosef Nasseri, MD. He’s a colorectal surgeon at the Surgery Group of Los Angeles and is affiliated with Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.
“Now they’re able to determine when they can schedule emptying their bag. It doesn’t interfere with any really major daily activities. They’re able to go about doing whatever they want to do — travel, work — without needing to be tied to a bathroom,” he says.
“It is definitely a new lease on life, no question,” agrees Margaret Goldberg, a wound, ostomy, and continence nurse. “The pouches are all completely odor-proof. And most people just empty them, clean the bottom, and go about their business.”
With a variety of pouching systems to choose from, Nasseri and Goldberg say it’s important to talk with an ostomy nurse about your options. “We know all the systems, and we know for the most part what’s going to work best,” Goldberg says.
If you choose a system that doesn’t feel right for you, talk to your ostomy nurse. If you don’t have an ostomy nurse, start searching for one, Goldberg says. The WOCN Society – an organization of wound, continence, and ostomy nurses — can be a good place to start.
Gulden took advantage of her freedom after ostomy surgery. She left her marketing career, went back to school, and became an emergency medical technician. To protect her stoma on the job, she wore a belt-like device around it at times, just in case she knocked into something or someone.
Years later, she teamed up with her friend Joe Teeters, who also had a permanent ostomy surgery for Crohn’s disease, to do candid and comedic public speaking about their lives with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). IBD includes ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s.
Gulden and Teeters call themselves “Double Baggin It.” “A lot of people find … there’s such a stigma around it,” she says of having an ostomy pouch. “Like, ‘Oh, you poop in a bag. Oh, your intestine’s outside of your body.’ And it’s scary. So, we want to just be open and answer questions.”
She’s yet to find something she can’t do with a pouch. “I go swimming. I go hot tubbing. I go in saunas, and steam rooms, and everything that you can think of.”
She wears whatever clothes she wants, too. That’s thanks in large part to the pre-surgery planning that her ostomy nurses and surgeon did to find the ideal place on her belly for her stoma. Many people who don’t need emergency ostomy surgery benefit from this planning, which makes you more likely to be able to dress how you like and get back to your usual activities.
These days, Gulden works in medical sales. She’s convinced that getting a permanent ostomy was the best decision she’s ever made. “Everybody’s journey is completely different. But for me, I felt a difference within 18 hours of surgery,” she says. “I cried for like a solid year out of joy every time I could do something with an ostomy that I couldn’t do without it.”
Justin Mirigliani dreaded the idea of getting an ostomy pouch. An avid hockey player and weightlifter, he’d been keeping his ulcerative colitis symptoms mostly under control “with a ton of medications” since getting diagnosed in 2002. He figured that if he ever needed an operation for his UC, he’d get the most common one, J-pouch surgery. It allows you to poop normally, and most people only need to wear a temporary ostomy pouch while healing from it.
“I said to anybody who knew me, next to dying, having the bag would be the second-worst thing that could possibly happen to me,” says Mirigliani, a 46-year-old husband, father, and corporate software trainer in Cherry Hill, NJ. “My notion was: hockey is done, no more weightlifting, forget skiing. I just thought I’d just shrivel up and get old.”
But when his colonoscopy spotted a precancerous change called high-grade dysplasia, Mirigliani’s doctor told him he’d need surgery and that J-pouch wasn’t a good option for him. Even though it removes your colon and rectum, it leaves the top of the anus, which gets connected to the end of the small intestine to form a pouch inside your body. To have the best chance of avoiding colorectal cancer, Mirigliani would need a total proctocolectomy with a permanent ileostomy, the same surgery that Gulden got.
“I was devastated. I collapsed in tears. I was petrified. Not only that I had the high-grade dysplasia, but I didn’t know what life would ever be like with a permanent ostomy,” Mirigliani says. Thinking of his family made the decision easier, though. “I have two daughters, and my main thing was: What was going to give me the best chance to walk them down the aisle when they get married?”
Some of the faulty ideas that people have about modern ostomy pouches stem from memories they have of older folks who wore one a long time ago, Goldberg says. “Most people have a grandfather or some neighbor or somebody who had the surgery and never left the house again. Or if they did leave the house, they stunk to high heaven. Again, the equipment has improved tremendously.”
Goldberg would know. She got her ostomy pouch for ulcerative colitis back in 1970. “Fifty percent [of people] that I’m friends with don’t know that I have an ostomy. And the other 50% forget.”
“We try very hard just to fit in exactly like we have been before,” she says. “And there’s no reason why you can’t.”
Some people worry about how ostomy surgery might affect their sex life, intimacy, and body image, Nasseri says. “Especially if you’re young and single, the concern and fear is ending up finding someone that will be OK with [an ostomy pouch], finding someone who will be supportive.”
If you have a sexual partner, talk openly with them about things like your mutual expectations, bedroom activities you’re comfortable with, and any physical limits you have. You can also look up intimate wear made just for people with ostomies. Some companies sell lingerie and waist coverings that either hide a pouch or secure it in place.
Whether you’re concerned about your body image or life with an ostomy pouch in general, it can help to talk with other people who understand what you’re going through. Nasseri points his patients to ostomy support groups on the web, social media, or through national societies.
Goldberg also recommends finding support through the United Ostomy Associations of America. “It takes a while for you to incorporate [the ostomy pouch] into yourself and to see that, ‘I’m feeling so much better. I can do things,’ ” she says.
Mirigliani got his total proctocolectomy surgery in September 2015. His family helped him get through the recovery, which included sickening side effects from pain medication. “My wife had to be a single parent for a little while. I was pretty much down and out for a couple of weeks.”
Then in November, about a week before Thanksgiving, he and his wife, Amy, went out to dinner together for the first time since his surgery. “That turned the corner right there. I said, ‘All right, this is going to be a normal life.’ And I just started skating again and slowly got back into weightlifting, and I really haven’t looked back.”
The worst of his UC symptoms vanished. Gone were the days of taking a 2-hour car ride and pulling over five times for bathroom stops. Gone was the need to wear an adult diaper in case of an accident, which he’d had in front of software-training classes he taught at work. Mirigliani quickly realized that his preconceived notions about ostomy pouches had been wrong.
“I would say that no matter what your biggest fears are, the odds are that they’re not going to come true — that you’re still going to be yourself afterward. That most of the things that you have done before, you’ll probably still be able to do. It saves your life.”
He pays his gratitude forward with a charitable nonprofit association that he created called Checkmates. The charity holds NHL celebrity hockey games to raise money that goes toward finding a cure for inflammatory bowel disease and helping people in the ostomy community. Checkmates hasn’t held a celebrity hockey game since the COVID-19 pandemic began, but Mirigliani plans on having one in 2022.
May 10, 2024 – When we’re young, we take our macula for granted. At the center of our retina – the deepest layer of the eye that’s chock-full of photoreceptors and that confers color to our world – the macula is like a high-resolution camera. As light hits our eyes, the retina’s macula recasts our world in a bloom of color with astoundingly high visual sharpness.
But as you age, your vision dulls. What once stood out sharply becomes foggy, like condensation on a windowpane. After some time, a coal-black smudge or cloudy circular area begins to affect your central vision.
This effective blind spot widens over time if left untreated. What remains is a “macular hole” in the center of your retina.
This unfortunate series of events marks the advanced stage of age-related macular degeneration, a dangerous retinal disease that affects about 20 million people in the U.S., and nearly 200 million people worldwide.
And it’s not getting better. Estimates are that by 2040, the disease may affect nearly 300 million people worldwide. We are very limited in our ability to treat or prevent it. Read on for what to know.
First, What Causes Age-Related Macular Degeneration?
AMD’s causes are varied, and whether it will affect you is mostly determined by age and genetics, said Marco Alejandro Gonzalez, MD, an ophthalmologist and vitreoretinal specialist in Delray Beach, FL.
Because of the different cocktails that we have in terms of our genetic makeup, some people’s photoreceptor cells in the macula “basically start to shut down,” he said.
AMD’s development involves over 30 genes, and if you have a first-degree relative – parent, sibling, child – who has the disease, you’re three times more likely to get it, too.
Gonzalez explained how the expected rise to 300 million cases by 2040 is due mostly to improved diagnostic tools, along with the fact that the world is getting older and living longer. (Usually, an optometrist can detect signs of AMD during a routine eye exam.)
Eye experts still struggle to stop AMD’s most harmful sign – the cause of those muddy, milky, or even coal-colored circles in your central vision: geographic atrophy.
Geographic atrophy can occur in either of the two forms of age-related AMD: “dry” AMD and “wet” AMD.
Nearly every case of AMD begins as the dry kind, affecting 80% to 90% of AMD patients.
Retinal disease expert Tiarnán Keenan, MD, PhD, offered a vivid image of geographic atrophy for those who have dry AMD.
“As time passes, the circular patches of GA expand like a brushfire, taking more and more vision with it, often to the point of legal blindness,” he said.
A researcher in the Division of Epidemiology and Clinical Applications at the National Eye Institute, Keenan recently led a study that tested the efficacy of the antibiotic minocycline in slowing geographic atrophy expansion in dry AMD. The study operated on the grounds that the body’s immune system could be at play in developing the disease.
When your body’s immune system is overactive, microglial cells (central nervous system immune cells) can get into the sub-retinal space and possibly eat away at the macula and its sensitive photoreceptors.
Though minocycline had been shown to reduce inflammation and microglial activity in the eye in diabetic retinopathy, it didn’t slow the expansion of geographic atrophy or vision loss in patients with dry AMD during Keenan’s study.
When asked if microglial activity could have very little to do with the atrophy expansion, Keenan said it’s something to consider: “Maybe microglia are just there as bystanders clearing up the debris … so inhibiting them is less likely to slow down progression.”
In future drug trials, “maybe it’s possible the minocycline or another approach to target microglia would be helpful, but it would be needed in combination with some other therapy and be ineffective by itself,” he said.
Two Sides of the Same Disease
In dry AMD, Gonzalez compares macular degeneration to the loss of pixels on a screen. “Some of those pixels burn out … and that’s the way you lose vision classically in the dry form.”
Wet AMD is a more progressive form of the disease. It causes abrupt vision loss due to abnormal blood vessel growth.
“If you don’t treat wet AMD quickly, it’s game over,” warned Gonzalez. “Wet macular degeneration is the quicker process of vision loss because these blood vessels wreak havoc.” These new blood vessels bleed, causing fluid to build in the macula, which ultimately leads to scarring.
Gonzalez shed light on why wet AMD develops. “The wet form, for some reason, is the body’s last-ditch effort to try to kind of ‘help’ a dying macula. … When these blood vessels start to grow under the retina, they quickly destroy the architecture of the macula.”
Stopping the Bleeding in Wet AMD
Though wet AMD is rarer, it’s more treatable than dry AMD. Signs and symptoms can be eased with various therapies injected into the eye.
Putting it simply, Gonzalez said these therapies to treat wet AMD “all basically do the same thing. They make these new blood vessels regress temporarily before they cause damage to the macula.”
The injected medication clears away those blood vessels and restores the architecture of the macula. People can recover some vision in this way, but it’s only a temporary tune-up, and shots must be given as often as once a month.
“Degeneration of the cells is still the main problem. You’re not stopping that. But degeneration itself is a lot slower than actual vision loss associated with these blood vessels.”
The Struggle in Developing New Treatments
According to Keenan, “nobody has been able to stop geographic atrophy from happening” in either form of AMD. “So, that’s the main work in the field with trials.”
In December 2023, the FDA approved two new drugs: Syfovre and Izervay, both of which only slow geographic atrophy. Degeneration still happens, regardless.
Keenan explained how these two new drugs are “complement inhibitors … given by injection into the eye once a month or so.”
“Complement” refers to the body’s complement pathway, a trigger that activates a cascade of proteins in enhancing immune response.
Clinical trials showed Syfovre slowing the rate of geographic atrophy by up to 22% over 2 years, and Izervay up to 14% over 1 year.
Though these drugs are a new weapon against this troublesome affliction, they aren’t without their complications.
“Anytime you give an injection in the eye, there’s always the risk of an infection because you’re introducing something from the outside. So that’s the biggest risk,” explained Gonzalez.
An infection is uncommon, but potentially devastating, as you can lose your eye altogether. There’s also the chance of a damaging reaction to the shot.
“You have to pick and choose your patients,” said Gonzalez. “Not everybody is a good candidate for those new shots … and the patient is never going to see better. … It’s a harder sell than the ones for wet AMD.”
A Common Protective Measure
Keenan and Gonzalez both have a fair degree of confidence in reducing the risk of AMD with vitamin therapy.
As a bit of background on how vitamins were found to act as a sort of preventive measure, Gonzalez said, “In the early and late ‘90s, there were series of studies which were called the age-related eye disease studies.” These are now referred to as AREDS 1 and AREDS 2.
Researchers proved that a certain cocktail of vitamins slowed down degeneration. The most is a combo of antioxidants: vitamins C and E and lutein and zeaxanthin, all of which are in the AREDS 2 formula.
People who took these vitamins had a lower chance of losing their vision over the next 2 to 5 years. “[The combo] seems to be complementary and additive … with a combined treatment effect of 55% to 60%, an excellent safety record, and very low cost,” Keenan said.
Gonzalez recommends the AREDS 2 formula of vitamins to every patient of his. “It’s such an easy thing to take, and the downside is minimal.”
Unfortunately, if your genes make you more likely to have the condition, a change in diet or vitamin use could have no effect.
Dire? Possibly. But not all is lost in this fight.
Vigilance with AMD and What to Do Next if You’re Diagnosed
Gonzalez is adamant in educating his patients before time has run out on treating AMD. Recognition is key. “The most common reason a lot of these people get to me ‘too late’ is they don’t realize there’s a problem.”
He explained a typical scenario: “Let’s say you have macular degeneration in both eyes at different stages. One of your eyes starts developing wet macular degeneration … so the better eye takes over and you may not notice there’s a problem.”
Even after a patient is diagnosed with AMD, they usually see a specialist only twice a year. Gonzalez often tells his patients to cover one of their eyes to make sure their vision is intact in both eyes. “You’ll be able to pick up on subtle differences” in each eye, he said.
This type of self-care and vigilance can be the difference between successfully living with and treating the disease for the rest of your life, and trying to get help when it’s simply too late.
For wet AMD, as mentioned before, a round of injections is basically what everyone does. Without quick, invasive treatment, the point of no return approaches rapidly.
May 16, 2024 – Multiple U.S. agencies are working to contain the recent bird flu outbreak among cattle to prevent further spread to humans (beyond one case reported in early April) and use what we learned before, during, and after the COVID-19 pandemic to keep farm workers and the general public safe.
Fingers crossed, the bird flu will be contained and peter out. Or the outbreak could continue to spread among dairy cattle and other animals, threatening the health and livelihoods of farmers and others who work with livestock.
Or the virus could change in a way that makes it easier to infect and spread among people. If this happens, the worst-case scenario could be a new influenza pandemic.
With so many unknowns, WebMD brought together experts from four federal agencies to talk prevention, monitoring, and what the “what ifs” of bird flu might look like.
Communication with the public “about what we know, what we don’t know, and ways you and your family can stay safe is a priority for us at CDC,” said Nirav D. Shah, MD, JD, the CDC’s principal deputy director. “We at the federal level are responding, and we want the public to be following along.”
People should consult the websites for the CDC, FDA, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), and the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR) for updates.
It is essential to not only stay informed, but to seek trusted sources of information, Shah said during “Bird Flu 2024 – What You Need to Know,” an online briefing jointly sponsored by the CDC and WebMD.
An ‘Experimental Hamburger’
If one take-home message emerged from the event, it was that the threat to the general public remains low.
The retail milk supply is safe, although consuming raw or unpasteurized milk is not recommended. “While commercial milk supply is safe, we strongly advise against drinking raw milk,” said Donald A. Prater, DVM, acting director for the FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition.
As for other foods, thoroughly cooked eggs are less risky than raw eggs, and the nation’s beef supply remains free of the virus as well.
For years, federal inspectors have purchased and tested meat at retail stores, said Eric Deeble, DVM, USDA deputy assistant secretary for the Office of Congressional Relations. So far, H5N1, the virus behind bird flu, has not been detected in beef.
The USDA took testing a step further and recently cooked ground beef from dairy cows in their lab. Using what Deeble described as an “experimental hamburger,” the agency showed cooking beef to 165 F or higher kills the virus if it ever becomes necessary.
The federal government now requires all cattle be tested and be free of bird flu virus before crossing any state lines. The government is also reimbursing farmers for veterinary care and loss of business related to the outbreak, and supply personal protective equipment (PPE) like gloves, masks, and face shields to workers.
Vaccination Not Recommended Now
Federal scientists know enough about H5N1 virus to create vaccines against it quickly if the need arises. It’s more about planning ahead at this point. “Vaccines are not part of our response right now,” said David Boucher, PhD, director of infectious diseases preparedness and response at the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response.
If the virus changes and becomes a bigger threat to people, “we have the building blocks to produce a vaccine,” Boucher added.
An event attendee asked if the seasonal flu shot offers any protection. “Unfortunately, the flu shot you got last year does not provide great protection from the avian flu,” Shah responded. “It might do a little bit … but that is the vaccine for seasonal flu. This is something more novel.”
Treatments Stockpiled and Ready
Antiviral medications, which if given early in the course of bird flu infection could shorten the severity or duration of illness, are available now, Shah said. The dairy farmer who was infected with bird flu earlier this year responded to oseltamivir (Tamiflu) treatment, for example.
When it comes to bird flu symptoms, the fact that the only infected person reported so far this year developed pink eye, also known as conjunctivitis, is interesting, Shah said. Officials would have expected to see more typical seasonal flu symptoms, he added.
“Influenza is not a new virus,” Boucher said. “With this strain of influenza, we are not seeing any genetic markers associated with resistance to antivirals. That means the antivirals we take for seasonal influenza would also be available if needed to treat H5N1.”
ASPR has stockpiled Tamiflu and three other antivirals. “We do have tens of millions of courses that can be distributed around the country if we need them,” he added.
“Influenza is an enemy we know well,” Boucher said. That is why “we have antivirals ready to go now and many types of PPE.”
Science in Action
The feds intend to stay on the case. They will continue to monitor emergency department visits, lab test orders, and wastewater samples for any changes suggesting a human pandemic risk is growing.
“While we’ve learned a great deal, there are still many things we do not know,” Deeble said.
Shah added, “As in any outbreak, this is an evolving situation and things can change. What you are seeing now is science in action.”
For the latest updates on bird flu in the United States, visit the CDC’s H5N1 Bird Flu: Current Situation Summary website.
May 16, 2024 – Multiple U.S. agencies are working to contain the recent bird flu outbreak among cattle to prevent further spread to humans (beyond one case reported in early April) and use what we learned before, during, and after the COVID-19 pandemic to keep farm workers and the general public safe.
Fingers crossed, the bird flu will be contained and peter out. Or the outbreak could continue to spread among dairy cattle and other animals, threatening the health and livelihoods of farmers and others who work with livestock.
Or the virus could change in a way that makes it easier to infect and spread among people. If this happens, the worst-case scenario could be a new influenza pandemic.
With so many unknowns, WebMD brought together experts from four federal agencies to talk prevention, monitoring, and what the “what ifs” of bird flu might look like.
Communication with the public “about what we know, what we don’t know, and ways you and your family can stay safe is a priority for us at CDC,” said Nirav D. Shah, MD, JD, the CDC’s principal deputy director. “We at the federal level are responding, and we want the public to be following along.”
People should consult the websites for the CDC, FDA, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), and the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR) for updates.
It is essential to not only stay informed, but to seek trusted sources of information, Shah said during “Bird Flu 2024 – What You Need to Know,” an online briefing jointly sponsored by the CDC and WebMD.
An ‘Experimental Hamburger’
If one take-home message emerged from the event, it was that the threat to the general public remains low.
The retail milk supply is safe, although consuming raw or unpasteurized milk is not recommended. “While commercial milk supply is safe, we strongly advise against drinking raw milk,” said Donald A. Prater, DVM, acting director for the FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition.
As for other foods, thoroughly cooked eggs are less risky than raw eggs, and the nation’s beef supply remains free of the virus as well.
For years, federal inspectors have purchased and tested meat at retail stores, said Eric Deeble, DVM, USDA deputy assistant secretary for the Office of Congressional Relations. So far, H5N1, the virus behind bird flu, has not been detected in beef.
The USDA took testing a step further and recently cooked ground beef from dairy cows in their lab. Using what Deeble described as an “experimental hamburger,” the agency showed cooking beef to 165 F or higher kills the virus if it ever becomes necessary.
The federal government now requires all cattle be tested and be free of bird flu virus before crossing any state lines. The government is also reimbursing farmers for veterinary care and loss of business related to the outbreak, and supply personal protective equipment (PPE) like gloves, masks, and face shields to workers.
Vaccination Not Recommended Now
Federal scientists know enough about H5N1 virus to create vaccines against it quickly if the need arises. It’s more about planning ahead at this point. “Vaccines are not part of our response right now,” said David Boucher, PhD, director of infectious diseases preparedness and response at the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response.
If the virus changes and becomes a bigger threat to people, “we have the building blocks to produce a vaccine,” Boucher added.
An event attendee asked if the seasonal flu shot offers any protection. “Unfortunately, the flu shot you got last year does not provide great protection from the avian flu,” Shah responded. “It might do a little bit … but that is the vaccine for seasonal flu. This is something more novel.”
Treatments Stockpiled and Ready
Antiviral medications, which if given early in the course of bird flu infection could shorten the severity or duration of illness, are available now, Shah said. The dairy farmer who was infected with bird flu earlier this year responded to oseltamivir (Tamiflu) treatment, for example.
When it comes to bird flu symptoms, the fact that the only infected person reported so far this year developed pink eye, also known as conjunctivitis, is interesting, Shah said. Officials would have expected to see more typical seasonal flu symptoms, he added.
“Influenza is not a new virus,” Boucher said. “With this strain of influenza, we are not seeing any genetic markers associated with resistance to antivirals. That means the antivirals we take for seasonal influenza would also be available if needed to treat H5N1.”
ASPR has stockpiled Tamiflu and three other antivirals. “We do have tens of millions of courses that can be distributed around the country if we need them,” he added.
“Influenza is an enemy we know well,” Boucher said. That is why “we have antivirals ready to go now and many types of PPE.”
Science in Action
The feds intend to stay on the case. They will continue to monitor emergency department visits, lab test orders, and wastewater samples for any changes suggesting a human pandemic risk is growing.
“While we’ve learned a great deal, there are still many things we do not know,” Deeble said.
Shah added, “As in any outbreak, this is an evolving situation and things can change. What you are seeing now is science in action.”
For the latest updates on bird flu in the United States, visit the CDC’s H5N1 Bird Flu: Current Situation Summary website.
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