United States: A person is dead in Louisiana from severe bird flu, which is actually the first fatality linked to the disease in the United States, local health departments in the state said on Monday.
More about the news
The officials confirmed that the patient was above sixty-five years of age and had an existing physical illness. H5N1 bird flu virus infected an individual because of contact with a backyard flock and wild birds.
The virus has not shown signs that it is person to person anywhere in the country, and NO officials in Louisiana have linked any other cases in the state.
Pasteurization of dairy products means that the products are still safe for consumption.
According to Dr. Diego Diel, a virologist at Cornell University, “I still think the risk remains low,” the New York Times reported.
“However, it is important that people remain vigilant and avoid contact with sick animals, sick poultry, sick dairy cattle, and also avoid contact with wild birds,” he maintained.
What more has the report suggested?
The report suggested that samples of the virus from the patient had mutations that could improve its capability of infecting more people.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stated last month that two of these mutations were not seen in samples taken from the affected backyard flock, implying that they emerged in the patient as the disease progressed.
One of the mutations was also found in the virus supplied by a hospitalized 13-year-old girl from Canada who had needed respiratory assistance.
Strain in infected humans
Both patients had a strain of the virus prevalent in wild birds but different from that found in affected dairy cattle.
These are admittedly anecdotal instances; nevertheless, taken together, the two suggest that the virus may be capable of reconstituting itself into other deadly forms, in the opinion of some experts.
According to Dr. James Lawler, a director of the University of Nebraska’s Global Center for Health Security, the news “should remind us that H5N1 influenza has been and continues to be a dangerous virus,” the New York Times reported.
“The more widely the virus circulates, particularly infections in humans and other mammals, the higher the risk that the virus will acquire mutations that adapt the virus for human disease and transmission,” he added. “This puts us all at risk.”
That risk is particularly heightened as the nation prepares to battle a particularly tough flu season.
A person affected by both the bird flu virus and the seasonal flu might be giving H5N1 enough chances to get the changes it requires to spread into people.