A patient who was hospitalized with the first human case of pathogenic avian influenza, or H5N1, in Louisiana and the United States has died.

The Louisiana patient who contracted what officials said was the nation’s first “severe” case of avian influenza has died, the state health department said Monday. The person who contracted the H5N1 strain of highly pathogenic bird flu in southwest Louisiana had been hospitalized since mid-December.

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

First US death from H5N1 avian influenza confirmed by Louisiana Department of Health in an individual with pre-existing conditions.

A patient in Louisiana who had been hospitalized with the first human case of highly pathogenic avian influenza, or bird flu, has died, health officials said Monday.

The first U.S. bird flu death has been reported. Louisiana health officials announced the death Monday of a person who had been hospitalized with severe respiratory symptoms.

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.

LAKE CHARLES, La. — The Louisiana Department of Health reports the patient who had been hospitalized in Lake Charles with the first human case of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI), or H5N1, in Louisiana and the U.S. has died. The patient was over ...

The first patient hospitalized with avian influenza in the United States has died in Louisiana, the state's department of health announced Monday.

Avian flu is rampant in poultry farms and in wild birds in the U.S. Every mutation brings the virus one step closer to the brink of human-to-human transmission, but predicting whether a virus will cross that threshold remains an uncertain science.

An infectious disease expert says the relatively mild cases of avian influenza detected so far among dairy workers don’t warrant making a vaccine available to them, even as they work to contain and prevent spread of the contagious virus among herds.

On Jan. 6, the Louisiana Department of Health reported that a local man who was hospitalized with the bird flu (highly pathogenic avian influenza, HPAI) died. The patient was 65 years old and had underlying medical conditions. The health department said ...