23.12.2016

A week ago, 45 cats at an animal shelter in New York City had tested positive for a rarely seen avian H7N2 virus.
The New York City Health Department has announced that one close contact of the cats at one of the shelters - a veterinarian who was involved in obtaining respiratory specimens from sick cats at the Manhattan shelter -  tested positive for the H7N2 virus. The illness was mild, short-lived, and has resolved. 
There have been two previous documented human cases of H7N2 infection in the United States – one in a person managing an outbreak of the virus in turkeys and chickens in 2002 and the other with an unknown source in 2003. Both of these patients also had mild illness and recovered. This is the first reported case due to exposure to an infected cat. 
Since last week, more than 100 cats have tested positive for H7N2 across all NYC shelters. This was expected because the virus is highly contagious among cats and cats are sometimes moved between shelters. All of the newly infected cats are experiencing mild illness.