CDC says it is on “standby” amid fears of a bird flu pandemic.

US health officials are stepping up their pandemic preparedness plans after a bird flu scare in Cambodia.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said they were in a “standby state” with several vaccine and drug candidates in the works.

National testing capacities are also being built in case the H5N1 strain, which has been devastating bird populations around the world, spreads to humans.

“Flu campaigner” John Barnes said in a CDC webinar Monday, “Our priorities are really a stand-by at this point. So we are continuing our pandemic planning activities and should the situation change we have surveillance activities and surveillance of exposed persons.’

Fears of a flu pandemic were heightened last week after a Cambodian father and daughter were diagnosed with H5N1, raising fears it is spreading between people for the first time in decades.

In this file photo taken March 1, 2013, a Cambodian man carries chickens at a market in Phnom Penh

Like all flu, the virus is spread primarily through airborne droplets that are inhaled or get into a person’s mouth, eyes, or nose

However, health officials said it was “unlikely”, suggesting they were both caught from the same source – likely an infected bird.

But the danger of a spillover remains. More than 15 million birds have been downed and killed worldwide by the virus itself, while governments have collectively killed more than 200 million birds to stem the spread of the virus, including 58 million in the US alone.

dr Barnes, CDC team leader for influenza genomics, said at the conference, “We are continuing our viral genome analysis using the data we are receiving from the outbreaks.

“We have a risk reduction for pandemic vaccines and are outlining a potential H5 if we need to use this in a vaccine.

“Readiness of the national testing capacity is something we are working on.”

The world was being left behind by Covid when it emerged in late 2019, forcing most of the world to rely on lockdown measures to contain the spread of the virus while tests, medicines and vaccines moved into rapid production.

dr Barnes said the agency is in discussions with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) about developing a specific test for H5N1, either internally or with the help of commercial companies.

“That’s why we continue to study vaccine efficacy, safety and immunization systems.”

dr Barnes added that several drug and vaccine candidates have already been highlighted and he expects them to offer strong protection.

“The sequence analysis that we are currently conducting shows that our antiviral treatments would be very effective against most of these strains.

“And so over 99 percent of them would be a good candidate to be mitigated by antiviral treatments.

“And then we have candidate vaccine viruses for that strain, and it was added to manufacture in early 2022 and passed on to manufacturers.

“The vaccine candidate virus and then mink H5 are 100 percent identical for the part that matters, HA1. So this is a likely good candidate.’