The Louisiana patient hospitalized last month in critical condition for severe avian influenza has died, the state health department said Monday. It is the first death in the United States due to the virus. As the Louisiana Department of Health points out, the patient was over 65 years old, with previous health problems, and had contracted H5N1 after coming into contact with some infected backyard animals. These were chickens he raised and other wild birds that frequented the yard.
Also according to the department, no other people have so far contracted the virus in Louisiana. “The U.S. Centers for Disease Control CDC conducted a thorough review of available information about the man who died in Louisiana, stressing that however, the overall risk of infection remains low. The main reason for this statement is related to the fact that “no significant cases of person-to-person transmission have been identified,” the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention explained Monday in a statement.
So far, according to the CDC report, the H5N1 avian virus has been linked to at least seven other deaths from other countries in recent years. Since 2003, the World Health Organization has counted more than 400 deaths from the virus. According to CDC experts, the avian flu virus contracted by the patient had developed some rare and potentially worrisome mutations. CDC experts who analyzed the H5N1 i in the laboratory say its genetic changes likely arose within the person’s body. This explains why the same genetic changes were not found in the infected animals that transmitted the pathogen to the 65-year-old.
“Although the fact that A(H5N1) virus can develop changes during the clinical course of a human infection is concerning, it is important to note that these changes would be even more concerning if found in animal hosts or in the early stages of infection,” the CDC experts pointed out. Currently, the CDCs count 66 human cases of avian infection with different H5 strains reported in the United States since last year.
