Man deathly sick with bird flu

A patient in Louisiana was hospitalized with a severe case of avian influenza (H5N1), marking the first time a person has fallen severely ill with the virus in the United States. There is a similar case in British Columbia where a young man is in hospital.

The United States Centers for Disease Control there have been 61 human infections with avian influenza, but none of them serious.

On a call with reporters, Demetre Daskalakis, CDC Director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said

the Louisiana patient is believed to have been exposed to sick or dead birds in backyard flocks, the first such linkage in the U.S. They were not commercial poultry and were not exposed to dairy cows or related products.

CDC is conducting additional genomic sequencing to isolate virus from clinical specimens from the Louisiana patient, they said.

Officials noted the D1.1 strain of H5N1 is different from the B3.13 genotype detected in dairy cows, sporadic human cases in multiple states, and some poultry outbreaks in the U.S.  

No person-to-person spread of H5 bird flu has been detected.