A patient with the first “severe case” of bird flu in the U.S. has died, according to a press release Monday from the Louisiana Department of Health. It’s the first human death from H5N1 in the country since concern over the current outbreak started in early 2024 when it became clear the virus was being transmitted in the U.S. between cattle.
“The patient was over the age of 65 and was reported to have underlying medical conditions. The patient contracted H5N1 after exposure to a combination of a non-commercial backyard flock and wild birds,” the Louisiana Department of Health said in a statement.
There is no evidence of human-to-human transmission of bird flu yet anywhere in the world, and health officials stress they don’t believe the deceased patient infected anyone else. But the concern over bird flu mutating in a way that would allow it to spread between humans has been present for months.
“The Department expresses its deepest condolences to the patient’s family and friends as they mourn the loss of their loved one,” the health department wrote. “Due to patient confidentiality and respect for the family, this will be the final update about the patient.”
The patient is believed to have contracted H5N1 from backyard chickens, it has proved to be a more serious form of illness in humans. Most of the human cases acquired in the U.S. during this current outbreak have been farmworkers exposed to cattle, which has created a much more mild version of the disease.
The CDC’s bird flu tracker online currently lists 10 states that have seen known human cases of bird flu. The states include California, Colorado, Iowa, Louisiana, Michigan, Missouri, Oregon, Texas, Washington, and Wisconsin. Two cases in California and Missouri have come from unknown sources where the patients didn’t work with farm animals.
There have also been additional probable cases in Washington, Arizona, California, and Delaware where the source was unknown and testing has not yet confirmed whether it was H5N1. California has the highest number of cases by far but the only lab in the state that can confirm bird flu is reportedly understaffed, according to the L.A. Times.
Countries like Finland are vaccinating farmworkers against bird flu, but the U.S. federal government has not deployed a strategy to get farmworkers vaccinated because the U.S. is a failing country without even a morsel of common sense. And with Donald Trump retaking the White House on Jan. 20, you can bet he’s going to handle any new potential pandemic like he did the last one. Which is to say, not very well.
The case in Louisiana is the first human death from bird flu in the U.S. during this current outbreak, but there was a death in Mexico back in May 2024 in a patient with no known exposure to farm animals. The case, much like the patient in Louisiana, was in a person with other underlying conditions, though it’s not clear what those may have been.
The Louisiana Department of Health released a list of things people should do to avoid getting sick, including cooking meat and poultry properly and not consuming raw milk and cheese. Bird flu can linger in raw milk for about five days, and a cat in Oregon died last month after contracting the bird flu from raw food and pets are not immune from this virus.
Do not touch sick or dead animals or their droppings and do not bring sick wild animals into your home.
Keep your pets away from sick or dead animals and their feces.
Do not eat uncooked or undercooked food. Cook poultry, eggs, and other animal products to the proper temperature and prevent cross-contamination between raw and cooked food.
Avoid uncooked food products such as unpasteurized raw milk or cheeses from animals that have a suspected or confirmed infection.
If you work on poultry or dairy farms, talk to your provider about getting your seasonal flu vaccination. It will not prevent infection with avian influenza viruses, but it can reduce the risk of coinfection with avian and flu viruses.
Do what you can to protect yourself with these measures, folks. Because there’s no guarantee we’ll be able to avoid H5N1 becoming another pandemic.
