WASHINGTON — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced a new recommendation for hospitals to accelerate the process of confirming cases of H5N1 in patients. The agency is now suggesting that hospitals, especially intensive care units (ICUs), begin to implement rapid subtyping for cases of influenza A.

“It’s important to accelerate identification of influenza A virus subtyping so that the results are not just useful for retrospective surveillance but for real time action,” said Nirav Shah, CDC principal deputy director, during a conference call on Jan. 16.

Shah explained how “time is of the essence” when determining whether the patient has a seasonal variety of the flu or a rarer subtype like H5N1. Knowing which subtype can help hospital workers know what kind of personal protective equipment (PPE) to wear as well as allow public health officials to investigate possible exposures while the patient’s memory is still fresh.

This new recommendation is in response to the epidemiology of previous cases, Shah said. He stressed that the updated protocol is not a result of any greater risk from the bird flu.

“To be clear, the policy is not indicative of any change in our overall assessment of the risk either right now or into the future,” he explained. “That risk right now to the general public remains low, and there remains a moderate risk of a pandemic as a result of the current H5 virus.”

No evidence of person-to-person transmission of the disease has been detected yet. However, CDC continues to investigate cases where there is no clear exposure to the virus, as person-to-person transmission has not been ruled out in those cases.

For example, last week a child in San Francisco tested presumptively positive for H5 at the city’s public health laboratory. The child was not hospitalized but showed signs of a fever and conjunctivitis. CDC has since confirmed the results as H5N1, but the agency is unsure of the exposure source.

“At this time, no clear exposure source has been identified, including any animals, so the investigation remains underway,” Shah said. “All of the child’s household contacts have been asymptomatic and have tested negative for H5.”

Currently, CDC is working on antibody studies of the household contacts to see if any of them show evidence of past infection.

In addition to this update, the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced an investment of $211 million to ramp up the nation’s preparedness against emerging infectious diseases, such as H5N1. Funding from the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) will go to the Rapid Response Partnership Vehicle (RRPV) Consortium to enhance mRNA platform capabilities.

“We are continuing to take lessons learned during the COVID-19 pandemic to develop new vaccines and other tools to help augment our country’s pandemic response capabilities,” said HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra.