US records its first human death from bird flu

Louisiana health authorities reported the first human death in the United States linked to bird flu, while noting the patient had underlying medical conditions and that general risks to the public remained "low."

The patient, aged over 65, had been hospitalized in the southern state since at least mid-December, when the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced it as the country's first serious case of human infection from the H5N1 virus.

"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 Department of Health said in a statement announcing the death.

It said the patient had "contracted H5N1 after exposure to a combination of a non-commercial backyard flock and wild birds," but had detected no further H5N1 infections nor evidence of person-to-person transmission in the state.

The news comes just days after the federal government awarded an additional $306 million to bolster H5N1 surveillance programs and research, amid some criticism for President Joe Biden's administration over its response to the simmering issue.

The amount of bird flu circulating among animals and humans has alarmed scientists over concerns it could mutate into a more transmissible form -- potentially triggering a deadly pandemic.

Since the beginning the 2024, the CDC has recorded 66 cases of bird flu in humans in the United States.

"We have a lot of data that shows that this virus can be lethal, more lethal than many viruses we worry about," Jennifer Nuzzo, a professor of epidemiology at Brown University, told AFP.

"For that reason, people have been quite alarmed about these outbreaks that have been occurring on farms and other places in the US and have really been shouting for the US government to do more," she said.

Death 'not unexpected'

The CDC said in December that genetic sequencing of the H5N1 virus from the Louisiana patient was different from the version detected in many dairy herds around the country.

And a small part of the virus in the patient had genetic modifications that suggested it could have mutated inside the body to adapt to the human respiratory tract.

However, such mutations are not the only thing that could make the virus more contagious or transmissible between humans, according to researchers interviewed by AFP.

H5N1 was first detected in 1996, but since 2020, the number of outbreaks among bird flocks has exploded, while a growing number of mammal species have been affected.

"While tragic, a death from H5N1 bird flu in the United States is not unexpected because of the known potential for infection with these viruses to cause severe illness and death," the CDC said in a statement.

The World Health Organization has recorded over 950 bird flu cases in humans since 2003 in 24 countries, including a large number in China and Vietnam.

Nuzzo said the announcement of the US death did not change her perspective, but underscored her "big worry about the relatively unchecked spread of this virus and the urgency of doing more to prevent people from being infected."

"This is a nasty virus that no one wants to get," she said.