CDC Confirms First ‘Severe’ Case of H5N1 Bird Flu in U.S.
The U.S. has seen 61 confirmed human cases to date.
The severe case announced by the CDC on Wednesday was first confirmed on Dec. 13 after tests came back for a patient in Louisiana, the agency said in a press release. The virus in this case was identified as D1.1 genotype, which is related to other D1.1 cases that have been found in humans from Washington state and British Columbia, Canada. That genotype is different from the B3.13 genotype detected in dairy cows throughout the U.S. which has been the dominant method of human infection. The state of California, which has the highest number of known dairy herd infections in the country at 645, declared a state of emergency Wednesday.