FRIDAY, April 25, 2025 (HealthDay News) — Health officials in California are now offering gift cards to encourage people near farms to get tested for bird flu.
The project is a partnership between the state and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), according to CBS News.
Clinics run by a state vendor near affected farms are giving out $25 gift cards to people who get a swab test for H5N1 bird flu or receive a seasonal flu shot.
A CDC van is also visiting some areas to offer testing through its Avian Flu Influenza Area Surveillance Testing (AFAST) project.
This effort pushes back against bogus claims on social media suggesting that states have stopped testing farmworkers for bird flu under orders from U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
The CDC confirmed that its guidance has not changed — people with symptoms are still encouraged to seek testing from their doctor or local health department.
A spokesperson for the California Department of Public Health said much the same.
"There has been no change to our guidance for testing suspect cases, we are not aware of any symptomatic workers not being referred or tested for H5N1, and it is very unlikely that testing would be declined if H5N1 was suspected," the spokesperson told CBS News.
Funding for the gift cards comes from California's bird flu state emergency declaration funds.
"CDC does testing only and offers no incentives of any kind," the spokesperson added.
Nearby states with recent bird flu outbreaks, such as Nevada and Idaho, also said they are continuing to offer testing and treatment to exposed farmworkers.
"We have no knowledge of this happening and have not heard any recent reports of symptomatic workers," AJ McWhorter, a spokesperson for the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare, told CBS News in an email.
Local and state labs usually do the first test before sending a person's sample to the CDC for confirmation. Health officials may announce a possible case before it has been fully confirmed.
In California, health officials say they are also checking flu cases across the state to see if bird flu might be involved.
"To date, all samples tested have been confirmed as seasonal subtypes H1 or H3, which rules out infection with H5N1. The fact that no other human cases of H5N1 have been identified via subtyping efforts is reassuring," the state spokesperson also said.
More information
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has the latest on the current bird flu outbreak.
SOURCE: CBS News, April 24, 2025