- A 65-year-old patient has died of bird flu, Louisiana officials reported on Monday.
- The patient had underlying conditions and was likely infected by exposure to birds.
- This is the first death linked to the current outbreak of H5N1, avian influenza.
Bird flu has claimed its first human death in the US.
A Louisiana patient died from a severe case of the H5N1 avian influenza, state health officials reported on Monday.
The patient, who was over 65 and had underlying conditions, is the only human case of H5N1 in Louisiana.
There is still no sign that the H5N1 virus can spread between people. The Louisiana patient contracted the virus after exposure to wild birds and a non-commercial backyard flock, officials reported.
The bird flu’s proliferation through bird and animal populations worldwide has led to many human spillover cases over the years. There have been 939 cases of human H5N1 infections worldwide as of November 2024, according to the World Health Organization. Of those, 464 were fatal.
“I think it’s pretty clear that we will continue to see severe disease,” Richard Webby, a virologist at St. Jude and director of the WHO animal and bird flu center, told Business Insider. “I guess the real question is are we going to see more? I don’t know the answer to that one.”
A new variant of H5N1 with concerning mutations
The Louisiana patient, who was hospitalized in late 2024, carried a new version of bird flu, which is unlike the bird flu that has been spreading in cattle across the US, the CDC reported. A teenager in Canada, who was hospitalized with severe bird flu in November, also carried that new version, which is called the D1.1 genotype.
Public-health experts are concerned that H5N1 could develop mutations that allow it to adapt better to infecting mammals. That could set the virus on a path to human-to-human transmission.
Webby said samples of the D1.1 genotype virus “did look like they were starting to develop some of those mutations” after infecting the Louisiana and Canada patients.
Fortunately, the mutated virus did not appear to pass from those two patients to other people.
“To be honest, the last month, six weeks, have made me a little more uneasy about the situation,” Webby said.
The Louisiana Department of Health said in its report that the public health risk for the general public remains low, but “people who work with birds, poultry or cows, or have recreational exposure to them, are at higher risk.”
Still, Webby said the Louisiana case shows that “the risk of catching this virus is not just for those that are in a milking parlor in California,” who are some of the most at-risk due to the widespread outbreak in the state’s cattle.
Rather, he said, “anywhere where there’s birds, there is a risk to individuals who are in contact with those birds.”
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