The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is urging hospitals to accelerate advanced testing of people they suspect may have bird flu.

The CDC is now calling for subtyping of influenza A viruses in all hospitalized patients -- and on an accelerated timeline, ideally within 24 hours. Nirav Shah, MD, JD, principal deputy director of the CDC,

The risk to the general public from bird flu is low, and there has been no further evidence of person to person spread, the agency said. Influenza A-positive patients, particularly those in an intensive care unit,

CDC officials say medical professionals are seeing more patients whose illness cannot be traced back to an infected animal or bird.

Officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommend that hospitals speed up testing people who are hospitalized with the flu for H5N1 bird flu. Health care workers in hospitals are urged to perform additional testing on patients hospitalized with influenza A — ideally within 24 hours of admission — to determine

CDC officials say they extended the guidance now because they are seeing more H5N1 patients whose illness they cannot track back to an infected bird or cow.