A 65-year-old man died after contracting bird flu in the United States. This is the first case of death in the country. The overall risk of the virus to public health, however, remains “low”, according to health authorities.
This patient, who suffered from other pathologies, was the first serious case of human contamination with the H5N1 virus detected in the United States. He was hospitalized in Louisiana for a respiratory illness and was in “critical condition”, health authorities reported in December, at the time of the media coverage of his hospitalization.
He had “contracted the H5N1 virus after being exposed to backyard birds and wild birds,” the Louisiana Department of Health (LDH) recalled on Monday.
>> Also read: The bird flu virus has mutated in the body of a patient in the United States
High risk for professions related to poultry
“LDH’s extensive public health investigation has not identified additional cases of H5N1 or evidence of person-to-person transmission. This patient remains the only human case of H5N1 in Louisiana.” it on his site.
For these reasons, the overall risk presented by avian flu for public health remains “low”, he believes. “People who work with birds, poultry or cows, or who are exposed to these animals as part of their leisure activities, are at higher risk,” it says.
For several months, the United States has been facing an epizootic — the equivalent of an epidemic among animals (also read in box) — avian flu.
At the same time, 66 cases of bird flu in humans were detected in the country, the vast majority being mild. Others might have gone unnoticed.
>> Review the 7:30 p.m. topic on avian flu in the United States:
Mutation of the virus in the human body
Genetic sequencing showed that the H5N1 virus that infected the deceased patient was different from the version of the virus detected in several dairy cow herds and poultry farms.
And a small part of this same virus, found in the patient’s throat, presented genetic modifications suggesting that it would have mutated inside the body to adapt to human respiratory tract, the authorities announced at the end of December American sanitary facilities.
Other human deaths linked to the H5N1 virus have been recorded in the past in other countries, according to the WHO. Avian influenza A (H5N1) first appeared in 1996, but since 2020 the number of outbreaks in birds has exploded and an increasing number of mammal species have been affected.
ld with ats
Health
