First U.S. Death From Bird Flu Reported in Louisiana

TUESDAY, Jan. 7, 2025 (HealthDay News) — A Louisiana resident has died after being hospitalized with bird flu in December of last year, marking the first known U.S. death from the virus.

The patient who, “was over the age of 65 and was reported to have underlying medical conditions,” state health officials announced in a statement, tested positive for the virus and developed severe illness after exposure to wild birds and a personal backyard poultry flock that was infested with H5N1.

No other human cases have been identified in the state.

“CDC has carefully studied the available information about the person who died in Louisiana and continues to assess that the risk to the general public remains low. Most importantly, no person-to-person transmission spread has been identified,” the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in a statement.

The case involved the D1.1 strain of H5N1, the same subtype that caused the severe condition of a 13-year-old girl in Canada late last year.

Genetic sequencing of the Louisiana patient’s virus revealed rare mutations that likely developed during the course of infection, a news release shows.

However, the changes were not found in the animals believed to have transmitted the virus.

“Although concerning, and a reminder that A(H5N1) viruses can develop changes during the clinical course of a human infection, these changes would be more concerning if found in animal hosts or in early stages of infection,” the CDC noted late last year.

Most other bird-to-human cases have occurred in workers at major poultry farms; “this is the first case of H5N1 bird flu in the U.S. that has been linked to exposure to a backyard flock,” the CDC previously said.

The agency also stressed that an eventual case of severe H5N1 avian flu in an American was “not unexpected.”

“Avian influenza A(H5N1) virus infection has previously been associated with severe human illness in other countries during 2024 and prior years, including illness resulting in death,” the CDC stated.

The case does serve as a reminder, however, that anyone with close exposure to birds needs to be careful. “This means that backyard flock owners, hunters and other bird enthusiasts should also take precautions,” the agency said.

At least 66 human bird flu cases have been diagnosed in the United States this year. The majority of the cases have been in California and Washington, and the infections have mostly surfaced in workers who had been in contact with infected poultry or dairy cows.

For now, there”s no evidence that the bird flu is spreading from person to person, and most cases have largely been mild, the main symptom being conjunctivitis, or pinkeye. No cases or deaths from person-to-person spread have been reported.

In Dec. 2024, U.S. health officials reported that the strain of bird flu detected in a California child is similar to the strain spreading through livestock, though the patient had no known exposure to infected animals.