The first human death from bird flu was recorded in the United States

In the USA, the first death of a person infected with bird flu was recorded. This was reported by the Louisiana Department of Health on January 6, noting that the patient had co-morbidities.

The patient, aged over 65, was hospitalized last month with the country’s first known severe case of bird flu (H5N1).

“While the current public health risk remains low, people who work with or have constant contact with birds, poultry or cows are at increased risk,” the Louisiana Department of Health said in a statement.

The statement said the patient “acquired H5N1 after contact with non-commercial poultry and wild birds,” but there have been no other cases of bird flu in the state, and no evidence of human-to-human transmission of the virus.

Since the beginning of 2024, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recorded 66 human cases of bird flu in the United States

The amount of bird flu circulating in animals and humans has scientists worried that it could mutate into a more dangerous form, potentially causing a deadly pandemic.

Avian or chicken flu is a virus that often results in the death of infected birds. Its causative agent is carried by wild migratory birds. Some strains of bird flu can infect not only birds, but also pigs or humans.

The World Health Organization has recorded more than 950 human cases of bird flu since 2003 in 24 countries, including large numbers in China and Vietnam.

The last major epidemic of avian flu was observed in Europe in the winter of 2016-2017 – the causative agent of the disease entered together with migratory birds from Asia. Then hundreds of thousands of birds had to be killed to prevent further spread of the virus.