Louisiana bird flu patient is first in US to have a 'severe' case
An older person in Louisiana exposed to bird flu from a backyard flock is now hospitalized with a "severe" case of avian influenza, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Wednesday. The person is the first among 61 people infected with the H5N1 virus in the U.S. this year to have symptoms described as anything but "mild."
The CDC confirmed the person was infected with a strain of the H5N1 virus related to one recently detected in wild birds and poultry in the U.S. and in people in both Washington State and a teen hospitalized in British Columbia, Canada.
The strain of H5N1 is different from one circulating among dairy farms and some poultry flocks, which is believed to have been transmitted from wild birds early this year.
In a news release, the CDC said it will try to further analyze the Louisiana patient's sample to better understand the route of infection. But the agency has determined the patient was exposed to sick and dead birds in backyard flocks, marking the first U.S. infection linked to a backyard flock.
The patient is experiencing severe respiratory symptoms and is in critical condition, according to Emma Herrock, communications director for the Louisiana Department of Health. The patient is reported to have underlying medical conditions and is over the age of 65, putting them at extra risk for complications from the flu, Herrock said via email. She declined to provide further details on the person, citing patient confidentiality.
So far, the virus has only passed from animals to people, not from one person to another ‒ which would substantially raise the level of public health alarm. The Louisiana case "does not change CDC's overall assessment of the immediate risk to the public's health from H5N1 bird flu, which remains low," according to the release.
The agency does recommend that people who work around or have recreational exposure to birds or farm animals, including backyard flock owners, hunters and bird enthusiasts, take extra precautions.
Public health experts have told Paste BN it would only be a matter of time before someone would become severely ill from the infection, which has spread from wild birds to poultry and dairy farms across the country.
In previous bird flu outbreaks in other parts of the world, the virus has proven quite lethal, killing about half of those known to be infected, but it's possible many more people caught the virus and didn't have symptoms serious enough to have been counted, experts said.
The virus has been traveling the world since about 1997, first mainly in wild birds, but in recent years, also in mammals.