America's first human death from bird flu reported in Louisiana
Bird flu continues to spread across the United States after jumping from chickens and turkeys to cow milk and humans. The first death was reported this week in Louisiana after a 65-year-old man with underlying medical conditions succumbed to the flu.
CNN reported that a recent study by scientists at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention investigated the first 46 cases of bird flu in the United States in 2024. Nearly all of those were considered to be mild, with the exception of one person who had been exposed to infected farm animals.
The man in Louisiana was infected with a strain of the flu, known as D1.1, the report said. It's different from the one that is spreading among dairy cows.
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"The CDC reported in late December that a genetic analysis of the virus that infected the Louisiana patient found changes expected to enhance its ability to infect the upper airways of humans and help it to spread more easily from person to person," said CNN. "Those same changes were not seen in the birds the person had been exposed to, officials said, indicating that they had developed in the person after they were infected."
There's another case in Canada that left a 13-year-old girl in critical condition in a hospital. She recovered, but disease investigators who track the infections haven't determined how she contracted the virus.