The damage to those commercial industries has been severe. By the CDC’s accounting, bird flu has struck down nearly 131 million poultry and been found in 919 dairy herds across the country. The agency said there have been 66 confirmed human cases in the U.S. since last year, almost all of them people who worked on farms with infected cows or birds.

The patient, who was older than 65 and had underlying medical conditions, was hospitalized weeks ago in critical condition with severe respiratory illness.

The death of a Louisiana resident who was over the age of 65 signals that future H5N1 infections are not guaranteed to be mild, health experts say

The case in Louisiana is the first human death from bird flu in the U.S. during this current outbreak, but there was a death in Mexico back in May 2024 in a patient with no known exposure to farm animals. The case, much like the patient in Louisiana, was in a person with other underlying conditions, though it’s not clear what those may have been.

The first Louisiana patient with bird flu has died, officials with the state health department said Monday. The death is the first U.S. H5N1-related human death, the agency said.

The first human death from bird flu in the United States has intensified calls for the government to ramp up efforts to stave off the threat of another pandemic -- particularly ahead of Donald Trump's return to the White House.

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.

The Louisiana Department of Health reported that a 65-year-old man who was hospitalized with the bird flu (highly pathogenic avian influenza, HPAI) has died. It is the first reported human death in the U.

The first human death from avian influenza, or bird flu, was reported in Louisiana recently. However, health professionals in the state say the risk for humans remains low.