An American has died from bird flu, a first in the country for this virus.
A “tragic” death. The US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) announced in a press release this January 6, 2025 the death of a man due to H5N1 avian flu. “This is the first person to die in the United States as a result of infection with the H5 virus,” the CDC reports.
These latter had announced the hospitalization in Louisiana of the 65-year-old man in mid-December 2024. This was already the “first case of serious illness linked to the” H5N1 virus. The man suffered from underlying illnesses and the avian flu virus, which he contracted after exposure to backyard birds, caused him “severe respiratory illness linked to influenza infection avian”. He was in “critical condition” and did not survive the illness.
A first but not a surprise: the American Centers for Disease Control estimates that a “death from H5N1 avian flu in the United States is not unexpected because we know that infection by these viruses can cause serious illness and death. Outside the United States, more than 950 cases of H5N1 avian influenza have been reported to the World Health Organization; about half of them resulted in death;
Dozens of cases in the United States in 2024
While this is the first death linked to this virus, many people have been infected with bird flu. “As of January 6, 2025, 66 human cases of H5N1 avian influenza have been confirmed in the United States since 2024,” the CDC specifies. The majority of human cases have been reported in California, where a state of emergency was declared in December 2024. “While the risk to the public remains low, we will continue to take all necessary measures to prevent the spread of this virus,” reassured the governor of California in comments published on the state’s official website.
Fortunately, the virus does not spread from human to human, a fact particularly scrutinized by health agencies. The people most at risk of being contaminated by avian flu are those who are “in contact with infected dairy cows, poultry or wild animals”, recalls the California Department of Health. Hundreds of thousands of cases of avian flu have been detected in poultry and wild birds. “As a general precaution,” the CDC calls on the population to “avoid, to the extent possible, any contact with sick or dead animals, particularly wild birds and poultry.”
In France, the Ministry of Agriculture declared the country “free” from avian flu in December 2024, since no new outbreak had occurred in a month. According to Public Health France“sporadic cases are regularly detected” in humans. But the agency wants to be reassuring: “The risk of transmission to humans of avian influenza viruses currently circulating is low.”