The USA recorded the first death from bird flu this Monday (6). A 65-year-old woman, resident of the state of Louisiana, died from the H5N1 virus, after being hospitalized for several days.
The information was given first hand by the newspaper The New York Times.
The elderly woman had comorbidities and according to information from US authorities, she had had contact with wild birds in her backyard.
According to authorities, there is no evidence that bird flu has been transmitted to other people. Louisiana has not recorded other occurrences of the disease.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) pointed out that laboratory tests showed that wild birds do not carry mutations of the H5N1 virus and that variations of the disease occurred within the body of the elderly woman and other patients.
One of these mutations was recorded in a 13-year-old teenager, resident of Canada, who required mechanical breathing. She managed to recover and was discharged from the hospital.
These contaminations by wild birds raise the alarm that new occurrences may occur in the USA and Canada, which include new mutations of bird flu.
Data from the CDC indicates that 66 people were infected with bird flu in the USA in 2024. The majority of cases were linked to farm and poultry workers.
Before 2024, only one case of bird flu had been recorded. In 2022, an employee at a farm in the state of Colorado contracted the disease.
What is the H5N1 virus that causes bird flu and has caused deaths in the USA?
The Ministry of Health points out that the H5N1 virus is the most frequently recorded in domestic birds, birds and wild mammals.
Therefore, the Ministry also warns that prolonged exposure to H5N1 in birds increases the chance of contamination in humans.
Therefore, health surveillance work on domestic and wild birds is the main way to mitigate these risks.
The WHO recorded 874 human infections and 458 deaths from bird flu worldwide between 2003 and 2023.
Even so, the Ministry points out that the incubation period for H5N1 varies from one to ten days and that health agents must consider this time range for analysis and health management.
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