Bird Flu Hospitalizes 2 More Patients as Outbreaks Increase
Bird flu cases total 70 US patients as more animals are infected.
Two more US patients have been hospitalized with bird flu complications as cases continue to rise slowly among humans but much more quickly among animals, according to The Guardian.1
Bird flu cases total 70 US patients as more animals are infected. | Image Credit: digicomphoto - stock.adobe.com
When H5N1 (bird flu) cases first took off in the US in 2024, all patients who tested positive made a full recovery. However, at the start of 2025, the first severe case of bird flu led to the hospitalization and subsequent death for a patient in Louisiana.2 Although the CDC has reported no human-to-human contact at this time,3 recent cases are causing officials to raise alarms.
“This shows that H5N1 can be very severe, and we should not assume that it will always be mild,” Angela Rasmussen, PhD, a virologist at the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization at the University of Saskatchewan, said in an interview with The Guardian.1 “I am very worried about H5N1 in patients [who] are being treated in hospitals where there are also many [patients with] seasonal flu because this creates opportunities for reassortment, which could produce a pandemic-capable H5N1.”
Of the 2 recent patients who tested positive, one was reported in Ohio and the other in Wyoming, marking the first human case of bird flu in either state. Since reporting symptoms, the Ohio patient recovered, but the Wyoming patient remains hospitalized.
The Ohio patient was a male facility worker responsible for killing poultry infected with bird flu. The Wyoming patient was an older woman with multiple underlying health conditions that heightened her complications from the disease, according to a Wyoming Department of Health news release.4 She started experiencing symptoms after coming into contact with an infected bird in her backyard.
“Experts continue to track the spread of H5N1 through wild birds, poultry, and dairy cattle across the country,” Alexia Harrist, MD, PhD, an epidemiologist with the Wyoming Department of Health, said in the news release. “A small number of people have also been infected. Most of those confirmed cases involved on-the-job close contact with poultry or cattle and mild symptoms.”
As of April 2024, bird flu has infected 70 humans. Additionally, over 12,500 wild birds and over 41 dairy herds across the US have been affected. According to epidemiologists and influenza experts, the fact that no human-to-human transmission has been reported is a source of some relief. The main source of humans contracting the virus has been dairy herds (41 human cases), followed by poultry farms (24 cases), other animal exposures (2 cases), and unknown sources (3 cases).3,5,6
The first case of bird flu due to unknown exposure was reported in Missouri last September.7 At the time, this was just the 14th human case of bird flu in the US. Human cases have continued to rise as researchers and public health officials attempt to stop the spread among animals. This winter season has been especially debilitating, as cases of influenza in general have reached record highs.
“The news comes amid one of the worst seasonal flu outbreaks in 15 years—raising the potential for the emergence of a more dangerous virus that combines bird flu and seasonal flu in a process called reassortment,” wrote Melody Schreiber for The Guardian.1
Despite the recent improvement in bird flu testing, the rare occurrence of reassortment is a real concern, according to Andrew Pekosz, PhD, an immunology expert at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.8 He said that reassortment has been responsible for the influenza viruses that caused the last 3 human pandemics, and its recent impacts on hospitalized patients with bird flu may cause experts to be even more cautious.
The public is significantly close to exiting the current influenza case spikes and respiratory virus season. Although reassortment will be less of a concern by spring, keeping a close eye on the bird flu virus and monitoring its reaction among animals will continue to be of the utmost importance.
“The more we know about where the virus is in animals, the more we’re able to not only halt the spread within at least the species that we raise for food but also know which people may be at greatest risk of exposure,” concluded Pekosz.9
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REFERENCES
1. Schreiber M. Two people in US hospitalized with bird flu, CDC reports. Guardian. February 24, 2025. Accessed March 12, 2025. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/24/bird-flu-hospitalizations-wyoming-ohio
2. First H5 bird flu death reported in United States. News Release. CDC. January 6, 2025. Accessed March 12, 2025. https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2025/m0106-h5-birdflu-death.html
3. H5 bird flu: current situation. CDC. February 24, 2025. Updated March 12, 2025. Accessed February 26, 2025. https://www.cdc.gov/bird-flu/situation-summary/index.html
4. Wyoming’s first human bird flu case confirmed. Wyoming Department of Health. February 14, 2025. Accessed February 26, 2025. https://health.wyo.gov/wyomings-first-human-bird-flu-case-confirmed/
5. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. H5N1 Response. Published February 26, 2025. Accessed March 12, 2025. https://www.cdc.gov/bird-flu/spotlights/h5n1-response-02262025.html
6. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Situation Summary: Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) Detections in Wild Birds. Accessed March 12, 2025.https://www.cdc.gov/bird-flu/situation-summary/data-map-wild-birds.html
7. Wyoming’s first human bird flu case confirmed. Wyoming Department of Health. February 14, 2025. Accessed February 26, 2025. https://health.wyo.gov/wyomings-first-human-bird-flu-case-confirmed/
8. Bird flu is raising red flags among health officials. Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. January 14, 2025. Accessed February 26, 2025. https://publichealth.jhu.edu/2025/bird-flu-is-raising-red-flags-among-health-officials
9. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 2024-2025 Estimated Influenza Illnesses, Medical visits, Hospitalizations, and Deaths in the US. Accessed March 12, 2025. https://www.cdc.gov/flu-burden/php/data-vis/2024-2025.html
