(Reuters) -The Louisiana Department of Health said on Friday it has detected the first presumptive positive human case of H5N1 bird flu infection in the U.S. state.
The individual is a resident of southwestern Louisiana and is currently hospitalized.
The department is coordinating with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on the epidemiologic investigation.
The investigation identified that the individual had come into contact with sick and dead birds, which are suspected to have been infected with H5N1.
H5N1 is a type of influenza virus that causes highly infectious and severe respiratory disease in birds.
Outbreaks of the H5N1 avian influenza virus in wild birds and poultry have been ongoing in the United States since 2022.
As of Dec. 13, 60 confirmed human cases of H5N1 have been reported across the United States, with the majority linked to exposure to infected poultry or dairy cows.
So far, there has been no person-to-person spread associated with any of the H5N1 bird flu cases reported in the United States.
(Reporting by Sriparna Roy in Bengaluru; Editing by Shreya Biswas)
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