First U.S. bird flu death reported in Louisiana

State health officials on Monday said a Louisiana patient who was hospitalized with severe bird flu has died, the first such fatality in the United States.

Officials said the patient was over 65 years vintage and had underlying health conditions. The person was infected with the H5N1 bird flu virus as a result of contact with a backyard flock and a wild bird.

There is no indication the virus is spreading from person to person anywhere in the country, and Louisiana officials have not identified any other cases in the state. Pasteurized dairy products remain secure to eat.

“I still think the risk remains low,” said Dr. Diego Diel, a virologist at Cornell University.

“However, it is vital that people remain vigilant and avoid contact with infirmed animals, infirmed poultry, infirmed dairy cattle, and also avoid contact with wild birds,” he added.

The news came on the heels of reports that virus samples from a patient contained mutations that could lend a hand it more easily infect people.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention he said late last month that the mutations were not present in virus samples taken from the backyard herd, suggesting that the patient developed them as the disease progressed.

One of the mutations was also present in the virus collected from a 13-year-old Canadian girl who was hospitalized and required respiratory support. She has since recovered.

Both patients carried a version of the virus circulating in wild birds that was different from the one causing the outbreak in dairy cattle.

Although these are isolated cases, both together indicate the possibility of the virus transforming into up-to-date, threatening forms, experts say.

The news “should remind us that H5N1 influenza was and continues to be a threatening virus,” said Dr. James Lawler, director of the Global Center for Health Security at the University of Nebraska.

“The more widely a virus circulates, especially if it infects humans and other mammals, the greater the risk that the virus will acquire mutations that adapt it to human disease and transmission,” he said. “This puts us all at risk.”

This risk is especially heightened when the country faces a severe flu season.

A person infected with both avian influenza and seasonal influenza can provide the H5N1 virus with ample opportunity to acquire the mutations necessary to spread successfully among humans.

H5N1 has been circulating in wild birds for several years and in dairy cattle for about a year. The outbreak shows no signs of abating, it is affecting over 900 herds in 16 states. The virus has also spread from dairy farms to poultry farms and remains widespread among wild birds.

In December, California, the state hardest hit by the cattle outbreak, declared a public health emergency.

At least 66 people are infected According to the CDC, almost all cases occurred in people who worked on farms with infected cows or poultry.

Most people had soft symptoms, often conjunctivitis or conjunctivitis and respiratory symptoms. Over the past 20 years, approximately 500 deaths have been reported worldwide, most of them in Southeast Asia.

A patient from Louisiana was reported to have been hospitalized last month. State officials, however, declined to release further details, citing patient confidentiality.

Before last year, only one human H5N1 infection had been reported in the United States – in a poultry worker in Colorado in 2022.

Experts warn against drinking raw milk, which may contain high levels of the virus. No human cases have yet been linked to raw milk, but cats have died in many states after drinking milk infected with the virus.