The first known human case of H5N5 has died in Washington state after spending several days in hospital, local authorities said, but stressed that the risk to the general population was low.
The incident in Grays Harbor County, about 125 kilometers from Seattle, involved an elderly patient with underlying diseases, whose gender was not specified.
He had been hospitalized since early November after developing fever, confusion and breathing problems, the state health department said.
A team from the ministry detected the H5N1 virus in a place where the patient kept domestic birds, which may have come into contact with infected wild birds.
The patient’s contacts tested negative. “The risk to the public remains low. “No other person involved has tested positive for bird flu,” the ministry said.
So far there is no evidence that H5N5 is more dangerous to humans or birds than the H5N1 strain, which has led to the deaths of hundreds of millions of wild and domestic birds since 2023.
H5N1 also caused outbreaks in US dairy cows as well in 2024 and 2025, most of which involved dairy farm workers.
The incidents of transmission to humans and had created
This week, the European Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (ECDC) warned that this year’s seasonal flu epidemic, as a new strain of influenza, called H3N2, has taken hold and is causing a spike in cases earlier than expected.
The K subtype was not widespread when the World Health Organization decided which strains should be included in this year’s vaccine. As a result, the effectiveness of vaccines may be slightly reduced, preliminary data in Britain suggests.
ECDC recommended timely vaccination of vulnerable groups.
