January 10, 2025
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Health officials in Louisiana announce first US bird flu death

By The Associated Press
This colorized electron microscope image released by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases shows avian influenza A H5N1 virus particles (yellow), grown in Madin-Darby Canine Kidney epithelial cells (blue).

This colorized electron microscope image released by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases shows avian influenza A H5N1 virus particles (yellow), grown in Madin-Darby Canine Kidney epithelial cells (blue). (AP photo/AP)

BATON ROUGE, La. — (AP) — The first U.S. bird flu death has been reported — a person in Louisiana who had been hospitalized with severe respiratory symptoms.

Louisiana health officials announced the death on Monday.

Health officials have said the person was older than 65, had underlying medical problems and had been in contact with sick and dead birds in a backyard flock. They also said a genetic analysis had suggested the bird flu virus had mutated inside the patient, which could have led to the more severe illness.

They have disclosed few other details about the person.

Since March, 66 confirmed bird flu infections have been reported in the U.S., but previous illnesses have been mild and most have been detected among farmworkers exposed to sick poultry or dairy cows. In two cases — and adult in Missouri and a child in California — health officials have not determined how they caught it.

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