Dive Brief:
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A total of 1,258 cases of avian influenza, or bird flu, have been diagnosed in China between March 2013 and February 2017, according to CDC data. At least 460 diagnoses have occurred since October 2016 and around a third of all diagnoses have resulted in deaths, according to a report from The Washington Post.
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Presdient Donald Trump has yet to name a new CDC director and efforts underway to repeal the Affordable Care Act could cut the agency's budget by 12%, according to Vox.
- The United States has stockpiled a vaccine for bird flu, although it is not highly effective against an emerging strain and another vaccine is under development.
Dive Insight:
A surge in bird flu diagnoses is prompting a scare at the CDC. The agency is currently working to develop a new vaccine, a process that will take several months to complete after it begins in June or July.
But the CDC is working under an acting director after Tom Frieden resigned in January. Frieden frequently spoke out against cuts to the agency amidst crises such as Ebola and Zika, which he said need a fully-funded approach to prevent dire scenarios.
As data-sharing becomes more common among healthcare organizations throughout the country, the data is increasingly used to track public health concerns and inform interventions. It is not clear how much health agencies are relying on technology in the fight against bird flu, but tech-enabled tools are finding their way into public health tool belts.
After Zika became a public health concern in 2016, health IT companies stepped in to investigate data and alert doctors if patients were at risk. The efforts by health IT companies have coincided with efforts by healthcare organizations to change the way they identify and manage patients at risk for Zika.
It is not clear that healthcare organizations are significantly altering protocols to identify patients at risk for bird flu.