Dr. Phil Chan Gives Update on MPox, COVID and Potential Threat From Avian Flu
Dr. Phil Chan Gives Update on MPox, COVID and Potential Threat From Avian Flu
Chan serves as chief medical director at Open Door Health and is affiliated with the Warren Alpert Medical School and Lifespan.
"So, as I think a lot of people know, we did see an initial outbreak back in 2022, and that was due to Clade II of the Mpox strain," said Chan. "Clade II has had a much lower mortality rate and we largely saw that pretty much die out here in the U.S. and in a lot of western countries because we aggressively vaccinated and performed other infection control measures."
"The worrisome thing now is we’re seeing a new strain of MPox emerge in Central and Eastern Africa, and this is the Clade I strain of Mpox," he continued. "The reason why this is a little bit more concerning is because Clade I historically has had a much higher morbidity and mortality rates."
"The risk to the general public is low — so there’s no reason for folks to worry. However, we do want people to be aware about it, and certainly, folks that are traveling to Central or Eastern Africa to people that are interacting with folks that have traveled [there]," said Chan.
Cases have been identified in both California and Tennessee.
COVID - and Avian Flu
"We are seeing an uptick of COVID cases here in Rhode Island and frankly across the U.S. The good news is people have become immune to it both through vaccination and prior infection, so we’re seeing COVID be less severe, we’re not seeing quite as many hospitalizations," said Chan. "So, at this point, COVID has become more of an endemic. We’re just reminding folks to take basic precautions — wash your hands when you get home; if you’re sick, don’t go to school or work, and make sure to stay updated on the COVID vaccines."
Chan said that the public health community is particularly concerned, however, with avian flu.
"I think most of the public health right now is very wary and watching closely this developing situation with avian influenza — H5N1. You may have seen this in the news but basically these flocks of birds and poultry and dairy farms are being infected with this highly pathogenic strain of Avian influenza; it’s been labeled by the CDC that this has moderate potential to be transmissible among humans," said Chan.
"I think the big concern is that we’ll see one of these more pathogenic strains of the flu to become more widespread in humans…this emergence of H5N1 in all these animal species has a potential to be a very bad flu, and potentially even a pandemic," he said.