Patient hospitalised with first 'severe' case of bird flu after contact with garden birds
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US health officials have confirmed a person has been hospitalised with the first known "severe" case of bird flu with the Governor of California declaring a state of emergency. The emergency declaration came after a person in the state of Louisiana was rushed to hospital in a critical condition with severe respiratory symptoms that was the result of a bird flu infection. The person, aged over 675, had underlying medical issues and had been in contact with sick and dead backyard birds.
It is the first human case in the US that has been linked to exposure to backyard birds, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said. More than 60 bird flu infections have been reported in the country since March this year. Other infections have been mild and were mainly detected in farmworkers who had been exposed to sick birds or dairy cows. Although, health officials are unsure how a child in California and an adult in Missouri caught the infection.
The CDC has said that bird flu is mainly an animal health issue and that the risk to the population at large is low, according to the Associated Press. CDC Dr Demetre Daskalakis said there has been no documented case of the virus spreading from one person to another.
But California Governor Gavin Newson declared there would be a state of emergency with cases of the virus being detected in dairy cows in Southern California farms. Bird flu had previously been detected in California's Central Valley. Newsom said in a statement: "This proclamation is a targeted action to ensure government agencies have the resources and flexibility they need to respond quickly to this outbreak." So far bird flu has been detected in 865 dairy herds in 16 states - 650 of which are in California.
