Louisiana officials reported the death of a person infected with bird flu, the first known death from the virus in the U.S. amid an increasingly worrying outbreak that has spread through dairy herds, poultry farms, and wild animals across North America. The person was hospitalized with severe respiratory symptoms.

   -- The other 65 known U.S. cases have all been described as mild, though a 
      13-year-old girl in Canada was also severely ill with bird flu last year. 
      The virus has circulated in wild birds and domestic poultry in the U.S. 
      since 2022, and was first identified in U.S. dairy cattle in early 2024. 
 
   -- The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in December that the 
      specific strain that infected the Louisiana person was previously seen in 
      wild birds and domestic poultry, but differs from the strain infecting 
      dairy cattle. The Louisiana person was exposed to noncommercial backyard 
      birds and wild birds. 
 
   -- The Louisiana Department of Health said Monday the patient was "over the 
      age of 65" and "was reported to have underlying medical conditions." The 
      agency provided no further details, but said there is no evidence the 
      patient has passed the virus to anyone else. 
 
   -- Nearly a thousand U.S. dairy herds are known to have been infected with 
      the virus since last March, and nearly 20 million domestic poultry were 
      destroyed in the U.S. due to infections in December alone. 

What's Next: News of the death is the latest worrying development in the bird flu outbreak, including a CDC analysis of the virus in the Louisiana patient that found changes that could help it bind to human cells. Those changes likely happened as the virus replicated inside of the patient, the CDC said.

-- Josh Nathan-Kazis

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