The first U.S. death from bird flu – H5N1 avian influenza – was reported Monday (Jan. 6) by the Louisiana Dept of Health.
As we reported earlier, the person was over 65 and had underlying medical conditions. He was hospitalized after exposure to a backyard flock of chickens and to wild birds, and state health officials all along said his condition was serious.
Louisiana health officials said that their investigation found no other human cases linked to this patient’s infection.
As we reported on Dec. 26, the previous week saw reports of the death of a house cat from eating cat food infected with bird flu and the deaths of 20 wildcats at a Shelton, Wash., wildlife sanctuary, which closed to safeguard the public and its animals. And the price of eggs have shot up.
“We’ve been studying the family tree of this virus for 25-odd years, and this is probably the nastiest form of the virus that we’ve seen,” Dr. Richard Webby, who directs the World Health Organization Collaborating Center for Studies on the Ecology of Influenza in Animals and Birds at St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital, told CNN. “So the fact that it finally did cause a fatal infection here is tragic but not surprising.”
CNN also noted that, since 2003, there have been roughly 900 human bird flu infections reported globally, and about half of those people have died, according to the World Health Organization. That would give the virus a 50% case fatality rate, making it extraordinarily lethal – but experts don’t actually think it kills half the people it infects.