Many people are drawn to drinking raw or unpasteurized milk, thinking that because it is “natural,” it has health benefits over pasteurized products. Most are likely unaware of the many dangers drinking raw milk can expose you to.
Pasteurization sterilizes the milk by heating it to 161 degrees Fahrenheit for 15 seconds. The US Department of Agriculture conducted tests to verify that the brief heating inactivated the virus. In Europe, the standard is Ultra-High Temperature, heating to 280 degrees Fahrenheit for seconds. If traveling, note that many dairy products overseas may not be pasteurized.
A California toddler was just thought to be infected with bird flu after drinking raw milk. The child developed a fever and vomiting. A test run on a throat swab was reportedly positive for influenza A virus. It was sent to the state’s public health lab and to the CDC for confirmation. Those reference labs were not able to confirm the suspected diagnosis. Lisa Santora, the Marin County public health officer, told Stat news that the negative test could have been because the amount of virus in the original test sample was low and that samples can degrade over time. The county would still consider the toddler’s infection a suspected case of bird flu.
The child’s milk came from Raw Milk LLC., in Fresno, Ca. One sample of raw milk from that company was shown to have bird flu last month, and the company issued a voluntary recall for batches of milk produced between November 9 and November 27. The CDPH also found the virus contaminating bulk milk storage and bottled products at Raw Farm’s bottling facility. The business has since been quarantined and suspended from new distribution of raw milk, cheese, and other dairy products.
Mark McAfee is the CEO of Raw Farm, the largest producer of raw milk nationally. Raw Farm has had prior problems with illness from contaminated milk. Most recently, twenty-two people were hospitalized, and 171 became ill from Salmonella. In 2011, three children were hospitalized with hemolytic uremic syndrome, an infectious cause of kidney failure.
Since 1987, the FDA has not allowed the interstate sale of raw dairy products, believing it too dangerous. Between 1998-2018, “202 outbreaks (0.9%) and 2645 illnesses (0.6%) were linked to unpasteurised milk, including 228 hospitalisations and three deaths.”
McAfee stated he had been asked to apply for a U.S. Food and Drug Administration advisory position by the transition team for Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who President-elect Trump has nominated as his secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.
The California Department of Public Health has reported 29 confirmed human cases of bird flu since October. All but one among those had contact with dairy cows. California is in the lead with infected cattle. There have been 617 cases in California alone, with 338 cases in the past month, and 58 newly infected herds.
Numerous infections have been associated with drinking raw milk, including Salmonella, Listeria monocytogenes, toxin-producing E. coli, Brucella, Q fever (Coxiella), Yersinia, and Campylobacter. We don’t worry as much about the public health implications of these bacteria, because person-to-person transmission is limited to a fecal-oral route. This means someone had a small bit of stool on their hands and contaminated someone else’s hands or a surface they ate from. That, or directly eating contaminated food, is how most of the above bacteria are spread. Listeria can be passed from a pregnant woman to her fetus. Brucella can also have aerosol transmission.
Protection Against Bird Flu
But bird flu is far riskier. Avian flu can be transmitted by fomites (contaminated surfaces), droplets, and aerosols. The CDC notes the virus can get “into a person’s eyes, nose or mouth, or is inhaled.” Even hunters are advised to wear gloves, an N95 respirator, and eye protection when dressing birds.
For healthcare exposures, the California Department of Health advises, “If a patient with suspected or confirmed H5N1 influenza infection presents to a healthcare setting, healthcare providers should:
• Immediately mask the patient and place them in an airborne infection isolation room (AIIR) with the door closed. While in an AIIR the patient’s mask may be removed. (If an AIIR is not available, place the patient in a single-patient room with the door closed and have the patient remain masked.)
• Use personal protective equipment that includes:
o Respiratory protection (fit-tested N95 respirator or higher level of protection)
o Eye protection (goggles or face shield)
o Gown and gloves”
It’s not only people who are at risk from raw milk. The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health is investigating the deaths of two cats from H5N1 after they drank raw milk linked to the recalled batches from Raw Farm, LLC. The LADPH is concerned enough that they even offered antiviral prophylaxis to the people in contact with the cats.
Even Fox News Senior Medical Analyst Dr. Mark Siegel spoke out about the dangers of unpasteurized milk, urging people not to drink it.
RFK Jr has been an ardent proponent of raw milk, believing it to have extra nutritional benefits. That might have been less problematic when the infections you could get from raw milk were likely to be limited to you or a limited number of people who ingested contaminated food. (While most people who get sick from Salmonella recover, it can be fatal. Such Salmonella food poisoning with a different strain, causing typhoid fever, caused the death of my grandmother and her young child.) But it’s a far different concern when you are talking about airborne transmission and pandemic potential if the virus mutates. Is it responsible for RFK Jr to be so vocal now, or should he be more circumspect, given the broader concerns about a brewing pandemic?
