US reports first death linked to bird flu in Louisiana health News
The late patient was admitted to hospital in December with severe respiratory symptoms after contact with infected birds.
The first death from bird flu has been recorded in the United States, following the death of a 65-year-old patient who was hospitalized on December 18.
The Louisiana Department of Health (LDH) announced the news on Monday. This patient was the first person in the US to be hospitalized due to a virus called H5N1.
“LDH’s extensive public health investigation has identified no additional cases of H5N1 and no evidence of person-to-person transmission. The patient is the only human case of H5N1 in Louisiana, the state agency said in a social media post. “The general public health risk currently remains low.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has confirmed a total of 66 human cases in the US since April, though none as severe as the Louisiana case.
Officials believe the patient, who was already suffering from some illness, contracted bird flu through contact with backyard chickens and wild birds.
While the risk to humans is so far minimal, millions of birds and cattle have been killed in an effort to mediate the spread of the virus.
The CDC says most people who have been infected with bird flu in recent months have been exposed through working with contaminated livestock and cattle.
An estimated 40 of the 66 cases are linked to dairy herds, and another 23 cases are linked to farms and slaughter operations.
“Although the current public health risk to the general public is low, people who work with, or have recreation with, birds, poultry or cows are at greater risk,” LDH said in a statement.
California declared a state of emergency over bird flu in mid-December after dairy cows in the western state tested positive for the virus. As of Monday, the CDC reported 701 confirmed cases in dairy cattle in California, out of a total of 917.
Many human cases of bird flu in the US are also concentrated in California, where there is a large agricultural region. But human-to-human transmission has not been recorded. All but one cases in the state are linked to cattle.
The CDC announced in late December that genetic analysis of the Louisiana patient showed that the virus had mutated inside the patient, which may allow the virus to better attach to receptors in the upper airways of humans.
Michael Osterholm, an infectious disease researcher at the University of Minnesota, told the Associated Press news agency that the development is worrying, but not critical.
“Is this a sign that we may be close to seeing the virus easily transmitted between people? No,” Osterholm said. “Right now, it’s a key that sits in the lock, but it doesn’t open the door.”
The World Health Organization (WHO) said in a public health assessment in December that the impact of the infection globally was “modest”.
