A person in Washington state has died after being infected with the rare H5N5 strain of bird flu, marking the first known human death linked to this variant, health officials said.
The patient, an older adult with underlying health conditions, was hospitalized in early November after developing a high fever, confusion and breathing problems. Officials said the individual lived in Grays Harbor County and kept a backyard flock of poultry that had likely been exposed to wild birds.
Washington State Department of Health officials stressed that the risk to the general public remains low and that no other people connected to the case have tested positive. They also said there is no evidence of human-to-human transmission, though close contacts are being monitored.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said earlier that this case does not appear to increase the overall public health risk.
H5N5 is not thought to be more dangerous to humans than the H5N1 strain, which has been responsible for dozens of mostly mild infections in farm workers in recent years. The two strains differ in a viral protein that helps the virus spread between cells.
