New York [US], January 7: On January 6, the Louisiana Department of Health announced that a patient over 65 years old had died from H5N1. This is the first person to die from bird flu in the US, according to CNN.
The health department said the patient was hospitalized with a respiratory illness and by mid-December 2024 the situation had become critical, alarming the US health system about the risk of avian influenza.
The patient had underlying health conditions, while tests showed the H5N1 virus that caused the illness was different from the variant found in dairy herds and chicken farms in the US. The patient had contact with both backyard and wild birds.
US health authorities say the risk of bird flu to human health remains low and no cases of human-to-human transmission have been detected.
However, authorities warn that people working on farms and those who regularly come into contact with livestock and poultry are at higher risk of contracting the disease. The health department recommends that people avoid contact with potential sources of disease such as livestock, poultry, wild birds or other animals.
H5N1 was first detected in 1996 but since 2000 outbreaks in birds have exploded and the number of mammals affected has also increased. Experts fear that the high prevalence of the virus in mammals could lead to mutations that make it easier to spread from person to person.
Since March 2023, there have been 66 confirmed cases of bird flu in the US, but most have had mild symptoms and were people working on farms with sick chickens or cows, according to The Guardian. Only two cases, an adult in Missouri and a child in California, have authorities not yet determined the source of infection.
Source: Thanh Nien Newspaper