Human cases of bird flu have been detected before in the UK, Russia and China but concern has mounted as the US reported its first-ever death from the virus this week

Bird flu has claimed its first human in the United States, but health officials say the risk remains low and there are precautions to stay safe. They also say they’re vigilantly monitoring for signs that the risk is growing.

With reports of the first human death from bird flu in the US, some Americans are feeling an uncomfortable flashback to the early days of Covid-19, when infectious disease experts were talking about a new virus that was sending people to the hospital with respiratory infections.