California Declares Emergency Following First SevereCalifornia has declared a state of emergency following the confirmation of a severe H5N1 bird flu case, marking the first such case reported in the United States. The CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) announced on Friday, December 13, that a patient in Louisiana has been hospitalized with a severe infection of avian influenza A (H5N1).
A Louisiana resident has been hospitalized with the nation’s first severe human case of H5N1 bird flu, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
“The patient is currently in critical condition, experiencing severe respiratory illness related to H5N1 infection,” stated Emma Her rock, spokesperson for the Louisiana Health Department.
The CDC reported that the individual was likely exposed to the virus through a backyard flock, marking the first documented instance of such a source being linked to a bird flu infection in the United States.
“An investigation into the source of this infection in Louisiana is ongoing, but it is believed that the patient had exposure to sick or dead birds on their property,” said Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, during a Wednesday briefing.
The case, initially reported as a presumptive positive by Louisiana on Friday, was later confirmed through CDC laboratory testing.
According to Daskalakis, the Louisiana Health Department is investigating the case, monitoring the patient’s contacts for potential exposure, and providing testing and antiviral medication as necessary.
Emma Her rock, a spokesperson for the Health Department, stated that the patient is over 65 years old and has underlying medical conditions. She did not disclose details about the patient’s symptoms or the backyard flock involved.
This year, 61 human cases of avian influenza have been reported in the United States. On Wednesday, Wisconsin officials announced a probable additional case involving a person exposed to infected birds at a commercial poultry operation. Confirmation of that case is pending CDC testing.
No cases of person-to-person transmission of bird flu have been documented to date. Most reported infections have been mild, primarily affecting farmworkers who had direct contact with infected poultry or livestock. Common symptoms in earlier cases include pinkeye, coughing, and sneezing.
Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious disease expert and professor of medicine at
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the University of California San Francisco, emphasized the Louisiana case underscores the risks of exposure beyond farm settings.
Dr. Demetre Daskalakis stated that the CDC is actively analyzing the virus’s genome to determine if it has developed any concerning mutations that could enable person-to-person transmission.
Preliminary findings from the Louisiana case indicate that the virus strain involved is similar to the one circulating among wild birds and poultry in British Columbia, Canada, and Washington state.
In November, a teenager in British Columbia was hospitalized after contracting the same genotype of the H5N1 bird flu virus. Canadian health officials were unable to identify the source of the teen’s infection.
“This highlights that bird flu can cause severe illness,” said Dr. Peter Chin-Hong. “The case in British Columbia is connected to the Louisiana case by the same variant of the virus.”
Despite these cases, the CDC maintains that the immediate risk of H5N1 to public health remains “low.”
H5N1 began spreading widely among wild birds in the U.S. in 2022 before affecting poultry farms and backyard flocks. Since then, more than 123 million birds have been killed or euthanized due to the virus, according to the CDC.
This spring, bird flu began spreading among dairy cows, with at least 16 states reporting cases in cattle.
Research on dairy farms has revealed that the virus can spread efficiently between mammals, likely through raw milk. Infected cows shed significant amounts of the virus through their mammary glands, facilitating transmission among farm animals.
While no evidence currently exists of human-to-human transmission, scientists remain concerned that the virus could mutate and acquire this ability, potentially sparking the next pandemic.
In the U.S., there have been two cases where health officials were unable to determine the source of a person’s exposure to bird flu. One involved a child in California, reported in November, while the other was a hospitalized patient in Missouri who tested positive for H5N1 in August and later recovered.