Complicating factors could include other infectious diseases, such as meningitis, and the impact from a lack of medical care.
Biosecurity support, streamlined financial relief for farmers, and vaccine and therapeutics investment are among the key steps.
The 2 patients exposed to poultry had severe infections, with H5N1 confirmed only from lower respiratory tract samples.
Cases in Cambodia have been on the rise, many of them fatal and some involving a novel reassortant.
In other H5N1 developments, the USDA confirmed detections at live-bird markets in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
The CDC notes that the poultry worker from Ohio had been hospitalized with respiratory and nonrespiratory symptoms.
The mutation doesn't appear to reduce viral fitness, as evidenced by its rapid spread, the authors say.
A 2024 outbreak of H5N1 on 3 unrelated poultry farms in the Czech Republic suggests airborne transmission, which is difficult to prove.
The farm workers from different households experienced symptoms, but declined testing, before their cats became seriously ill.
Also, Canada's vaccine advisers issue preliminary guidance on use of the vaccine in high-risk groups.
