The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has confirmed the first severe case of bird flu in the United States, noting it has shown a “concerning” mutation, leaving health experts to warn about the risk of another pandemic.
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On Wednesday (December 25), the CDC said a patient was hospitalized in Louisiana. According to a spokesperson for the Louisiana Department of Health, the patient is over 65 and has underlying medical conditions. Additionally, since contracting bird flu, the patient began experiencing severe respiratory illness, related to the infection, and they are now listed in critical condition, per a statement given to ABC News.
CDC and other health officials, citing genomic data, shared that the Louisiana patient was infected with a version of bird flu found to be spreading in wild birds and poultry in the United States. The CDC also reported that bird flu has been found in some human cases in Washington State and Canada. The CDC reported that the current strain of bird flu is much different from the version found in dairy cows and other poultry populations in the United States.
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According to the CDC, the bird flu patient in Louisiana was exposed to sick and dead birds that flocked to their backyard, however, a full-on investigation into the source of the illness is still ongoing. Furthermore, the CDC has officially announced that this is the first severe case of bird flu in the United States that has been linked to exposure to backyard flocks.
As of Saturday (December 28), the CDC has revealed 66 confirmed total reported human cases of bird flu in the United States since the first report on March 24, 2024. Cases have been reported in California, Colorado, Iowa, Louisiana, Michigan, Missouri, Oregon, Texas, Washington State, and Wisconsin. The majority of cases are in California, with 37, Washington State, with 11, and Colorado, with 10.
On Thursday (December 26), the CDC reported that a genetic analysis of the samples from the Louisiana patient, who’s been infected with the country’s first severe case of the bird flu, showed that the virus showed a “concerning” mutation, one that wasn’t found in the birds, suggesting the they aren’t in the virus spreading among wildlife.
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The CDC has also revealed what bird flu signs and symptoms to look out for in humans. These include: sore throat, cough, fever, runny or stuffy nose, headache, muscle or body aches, fatigue, and shortness of breath. Other less common symptoms include nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and seizures. Additionally, some infected by bird flu may experience no symptoms at all, very mild signs, like flu-like symptoms, or more severe issues, like pneumonia that could require hospitalization.
Following the news of the CDC announcing the first severe case of bird flu in the United States, some health experts have warned about the risk of another pandemic. On Friday (December 27), Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator under President Donald Trump, told CNN Newsroom with Pamela Brown, “We kind of have our head in the sand about how widespread this is from the zoonotic standpoint, from the animal-to-human standpoint.”
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Birx urged for additional and wider-spread testing of farm workers, noting that the country is heading into an even higher-risk period with the seasonal flu making its rounds. However, pushing back on the rise of bird flu possibly becoming another pandemic, a spokesperson for the CDC told CNN that the ‘comments about avian flu (H5N1) testing are out of date, misleading, and inaccurate.”
They added, “Despite data indicating that asymptomatic infections are rare, CDC changed its recommendations back in November to widen the testing net to include testing asymptomatic people with high-risk exposure to avian flu, and during the summer, it instructed hospitals to continue subtyping flu viruses as part of the nationwide monitoring effort, instead of the normal ramping down of surveillance at the end of flu season.”
They continued, “The result: more than 70,000 specimens have been tested, looking for novel flu viruses; more than 10,000 people exposed to avian flu have been monitored for symptoms, and 540 people have been tested specifically for H5N1. Additionally, CDC partnerships with commercial labs mean that H5N1 tests are now available to doctor’s offices around the country, significantly increasing testing capacity.”
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