The US is ramping up bird flu surveillance – but will it be enough?

The United States has ramped up influenza surveillance amid an ongoing outbreak of the bird flu virus H5N1 in dairy cattle. Public health officials hope more robust monitoring will help catch and contain any potential human outbreaks. But experts warn that without more surveillance, cases will slip through the cracks – if they haven’t already – which raises the risk of the virus spurring a pandemic in people.

Since 2003, roughly 900 people worldwide are reported to have had H5N1, around half of whom died of the infection. In 2021,…