CDC Confirms First Severe Illness Caused By Bird Flu In US

The Washington Post (12/18, Sun) reports, “An individual in Louisiana has the first severe illness caused by bird flu in the United States, federal health officials said Wednesday.” The hospitalized patient “had been in contact with sick and dead birds in backyard flocks on their property, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.” It marks “the first case of H5N1 bird flu in the United States that has been linked to exposure to a backyard flock, and news of the infection comes the same day California officials declared a state of emergency to confront the outbreak spreading among dairy cows.” The AP (12/18, Stobbe, Aleccia) reports the patient “is over 65 and has underlying medical problems.” Reuters (12/18, Douglas, Polansek) reports, “Severe respiratory illness in the Louisiana patient shows increased health risks for people from the virus that previously caused eye redness, or conjunctivitis, in infected dairy workers.” According to Reuters, “the CDC said a sporadic case of severe illness in a person with H5N1 bird flu is not unexpected as such cases have occurred in other countries in 2024 and prior years, including cases that led to death.” CNN (12/18, Gumbrecht, Goodman) reports, “The CDC said it’s working on additional genomic sequencing of samples from the patient, who is from southwestern Louisiana, and the investigation into the patient’s exposure is still underway.”