Topline
A Louisiana man who had the first severe human case of bird flu in the U.S. has died, the Louisiana Department of Health reported Monday as concerns of an avian flu pandemic continue to increase.
Key Facts
The Louisiana Department of Health said in a press release the patient—who contracted the illness after “exposure to a combination of a non-commercial backyard flock and wild birds”—was over 65 and had underlying medical conditions, though no further information was provided.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention first reported an adult in Louisiana was confirmed to have the country’s first severe case of bird flu on Dec. 18.
There have been no more cases of bird flu, or H5N1, reported in Louisiana since this case in mid-December, and the health department said there’s been no evidence of human-to-human transmission tied to this case.
The health department said general risk to the public remains low, but it warned people who work with or have “recreational exposure” to birds, poultry or cows are at higher risk.
The World Health Organization has said the illness rarely infects humans, with just 888 human cases being reported worldwide from January 2003 to March 2024—though 52% of those people died.
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How To Avoid Getting Bird Flu
The CDC says the best way to prevent H5 bird flu is avoiding exposure to sick or dead animals, particularly wild birds or poultry. If people must have close or direct contact with sick birds or other animals, the CDC recommends they wear personal protective equipment. Lastly, the CDC also recommends people avoid surfaces or materials that might be infected with “saliva, mucous, or animal feces from wild or domestic birds or other animals with confirmed or suspected avian influenza A virus infection.”
Big Number
66. That’s how many cases of bird flu have been confirmed by the CDC in the 2024 outbreak.
Key Background
A variant of H5N1 was detected in wild birds in Europe in 2020, according to Yale Medicine, and it was then detected in some birds in Canada and the U.S. in 2021. Bird flu has been spreading through livestock in the U.S. since April, when the Food and Drug Administration said some samples of pasteurized milk had remnants of H5N1 and the CDC declared an outbreak. The Louisiana patient who died of bird flu was infected with the D1.1 genotype, the CDC said, which is related to the virus circulating in wild birds and poultry and some human cases in Canada and Washington, but different from the one circulating among dairy cattle. In a Dec. 26 update, the CDC reported a genetic review of the patient’s virus found changes that allowed it to “infect the upper airways of humans and spread more easily from person to person,” CNN reported. Despite that finding, the CDC said the general risk to the public is still low.
Tangent
While there have been no human cases reported in Louisiana since this case, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health confirmed a human case on Dec. 23. The health department said the person was exposed to livestock infected with H5 bird flu at a worksite, and noted it was the first case in the county. That patient’s case was not denoted severe, and the county said the person was treated with antivirals, had mild symptoms and recovered at home.
Surprising Fact
A man in California said two of his cats died recently after drinking raw milk that was infected with bird flu. The Los Angeles Times reported at least 11 pets have died since Dec. 1, 2023, from drinking raw milk—which does not go through the pasteurization process to kill bacteria and viruses—or eating raw pet food, though experts told the Times that is likely a “vast undercount.”
