No human cases have been reported in the county and the risk of humans contracting the avian flu is considered low. Dr. Staab also said while the monitoring notifies officials when Avian Flu is detected in the wastewater, he said there is no way to know what the source is. Either from infected humans or […]
No human cases have been reported in the county and the risk of humans contracting the avian flu is considered low.
Dr. Staab also said while the monitoring notifies officials when Avian Flu is detected in the wastewater, he said there is no way to know what the source is. Either from infected humans or wild birds.
The county’s seat is located in Phoenix, which is also the state capital and the census-designated 5th most populous city in the United States.
“Our best guess is that these detections are related to those other positive cases in animals that we’ve seen in Maricopa County and Arizona,” Staab said.
The Valley is made up of various major cities other than Phoenix, including:
Residents are advised to avoid contact with sick or dead birds, as well as avoid consuming unpasteurized dairy products. The health department said there has not been any detection of H5N1 in Arizona’s dairy cattle.
The flu strain was detected in the three Valley cities that conduct wastewater monitoring.
MARICOPA COUNTY, Ariz — An influenza subtype associated with avian flu has been detected in local wastewater, the Maricopa County Public Health Department announced Monday.
“Given that no human cases have been identified in Maricopa County through our other disease detection methods and there is no recent documented spread of H5N1 influenza from human to human, the overall risk of avian flu to people remains low,” Dr. Staab said in a statement.
How big is Maricopa County?
Maricopa County is the United States’ 4th largest county in terms of population with 4,485,414 people, according to the 2020 Census.
The health department is not able to confirm the exact source location of the viral detection.
The influenza subtype was found in Phoenix, Surprise and Tempe, the three cities in Maricopa County that conduct wastewater monitoring. However, those three cities are the only ones that have a system that monitors wastewater. Dr. Nick Staab, assistant medical director of the county’s health department said there is a very real possibility the virus is also in other city’s wastewater.
The county contains around 63% of Arizona’s population and is 9,224 square miles. That makes the county larger than seven U.S. states (Rhode Island, Delaware, Connecticut, Hawaii, New Jersey, Massachusetts and New Hampshire).
- Mesa
- Chandler
- Scottsdale
- Tempe
- Glendale
- Surprise
- Peoria
- Gilbert
- El Mirage
- Avondale
- Litchfield Park
- Goodyear
- Buckeye
Traces of the avian flu have been detected in several locations throughout Arizona over the last few weeks. Multiple animals at a Valley wildlife park died from a flu outbreak reported earlier this month.
One of the largest park systems in the nation is also located in Maricopa County. The county has an estimated 120,000 acres of open space parks that includes hundreds of miles of trails, nature centers and campgrounds.
The county was named after the Maricopa, or Piipaash, Native American Tribe.
Whether a city is in the “East Valley” or “West Valley” depends on where it is in relation to Phoenix.
The cities of the Valley have a combined population of 4,845,832 people, according to the 2020 United States Census. This makes it the 11th largest metropolitan area in the country right behind the Boston and Atlanta areas.
What is the Valley?:
“The Valley” is what locals call the Phoenix Metropolitan Area. It is considered the largest metropolitan area in the Southwest.
