A Louisiana man who was hospitalized with severe respiratory symptoms has died from bird flu, becoming the first US death from the disease.
Louisiana health officials announced the death Monday, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed it was the first in the country due to bird flu.
Health officials said the man was over 65 years old, had major health problems and had been in contact with sick and dead poultry in his backyard.
They also said that a genetic analysis had suggested that the bird flu virus had mutated in the patient's body, which may have caused a more severe case of the disease.
Since March, 66 cases of bird flu infection have been confirmed in the United States, but previous cases have been mild and most have been detected among farmers exposed to sick cows or poultry.
A bird flu death was not unexpected, virus experts said. Since 2003, there have been more than 950 confirmed bird flu infections globally, and more than 460 of them have died, according to the World Health Organization.
The bird flu virus "is a serious threat and has historically been a deadly virus," said Jennifer Nuzzo, director of the Center for Pandemics at Brown University's School of Public Health.
Researchers are working to assess the risks of the current version of the virus and determine what makes it more severe in some people than others, she said.
In a statement, CDC officials said the death in Louisiana is tragic, but also said there are "no virological changes of concern ... that increase the risk to human health." VOA (A2 Televizion)
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