With reports of the first human death from bird flu in the US, some Americans are feeling an uncomfortable flashback to the early days of Covid-19, when infectious disease experts were talking about a new virus that was sending people to the hospital with respiratory infections.

On Monday, Louisiana health officials announced that a person hospitalized last month with a severe case of avian influenza — also known as H5N1 bird flu — died. This is the first human death from bird flu in the U.S.

A Louisiana patient who had been hospitalized with the first human case of highly pathogenic avian influenza, or H5N1, in Louisiana and the U.S. has died, the state's health department reported Monday. This marks the first human death related to bird flu in the U.S.

There is still a danger, however: a person in Louisiana recently became the first person in the country to die from H5N1. Louisiana health officials said the patient was over the age of 65 and had underlying medical conditions. They contracted bird flu after exposure to a personal backyard flock and also wild birds.

A U.S. patient who had been hospitalized with H5N1 bird flu has died, the Louisiana Department of Health said on Monday (January 7), marking the country's first reported human death from the virus. This report produced by Jillian Kitchener.

Concerns about the dangers of bird flu are growing after the first reported death in Louisiana from the virus. Experts said people who raise chickens should be on the lookout for signs of the H5N1 virus.

The H5N1 bird flu situation in the US seems more fraught than ever this week as the virus continues to spread swiftly in dairy cattle and birds while sporadically jumping to humans. On Monday, officials in Louisiana announced that the person who had developed the country's first severe H5N1 infection had died of the infection,