U.S. reports first human death from H5N1 bird flu in Louisiana. Experts urge caution for those in contact with birds as the virus spreads among poultry and wildlife.
A U.S. patient hospitalized with H5N1 bird flu has died, the Louisiana Department of Health said on Monday, marking the country's first reported human death from the virus.
The patient, who has not been identified, was hospitalized with the virus on Dec. 18 after exposure to a combination of backyard chickens and wild birds, Louisiana health officials had said.
The patient was over age 65 and had underlying medical conditions, the officials said.
Nearly 70 people in the U.S. have contracted bird flu since April, most of them farmworkers, as the virus has circulated among poultry flocks and dairy herds, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Federal and state officials have said the risk to the general public remains low.
The ongoing bird flu outbreak, which began in poultry in 2022, has killed nearly 130 million wild and domestic poultry and has sickened 917 dairy herds, according to the CDC and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The CDC has said genomic data of the virus taken from the Louisiana person showed it belongs to the D1.1 genotype related to other D1.1 viruses recently detected in wild birds and poultry in the U.S., as well as in recent human cases in British Columbia, Canada, and Washington state. It is different from the B3.13 genotype circulating in U.S. dairy cows.
"While the current public health risk for the general public remains low, people who work with birds, poultry or cows, or have recreational exposure to them, are at higher risk," the Louisiana state health department said in a statement.
The CDC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
"This one's a little different because this person was infected with a strain of influenza that was spread from wild birds to their domestic birds and then to themselves." said Clinical Assistant Professor Sarah R. Michaels of
Department of Tropical Medicine & Infectious Disease at Tulane University in New Orleans, explaining that cold and flu season is in full swing right now. "The risk is pretty localized, although it does seem to be growing across the U.S.".
Most U.S. bird flu cases reported this year have been mild, with symptoms including conjunctivitis, or pink eye.
"Keep those bird feeders up to feed the birds in your neighborhood." said Michaels, when asked by Reuters about the risk involved in having bird feeders for wild birds in a person's neighborhood. "But if you have a backyard flock, try and keep that distance from the flock to not encourage that interaction between your birds that you're either growing because of agriculture or your backyard poultry and those wild birds that are passing through."
Worldwide, more than 950 human cases of bird flu have been reported to the World Health Organization, and about half have resulted in death.
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