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A genetic analysis of viral samples from a Louisiana patient hospitalized with the first serious case of bird flu showed mutations that can make the virus more transmissible between humans, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The agency in its last update posted Thursday he said the mutations were not found in samples taken from wild birds, suggesting that the virus changed over the course of the patient’s infection.
Angela Rasmussen, virologist specializing in emerging infectious diseases, he said in a post on the social platform X that it was “good news” that the changes in the virus were not detected in the birds, “because it reduces the risk of transmission to another person and suggests that viruses “adapted to humans” are not emerging “to the birds”.
The One patient from Louisiana was hospitalized in critical condition with severe respiratory symptoms due to bird flu. According to agency officials, the patient was exposed to sick and dead birds in backyard flocks.
The CDC said the mutations in this patient were similar to those seen in a patient hospitalized in British Columbia, Canada. The changes may make it easier for the virus to attach to receptors in a person’s upper respiratory tract.
“Although worrisome and a reminder that A(H5N1) viruses can develop changes during the clinical course of a human infection, these changes would be more concerning if found in animal hosts or early stages of infection… when these changes may be more likely to facilitate spread to close contacts,” the CDC said in the report. “Notably, in this case, no transmission from the Louisiana patient to others has been identified.”
Health experts said the virus was expected to mutate, and while there is some good news that the changes occurred after infection, it is still worrying.
“The H5N1 situation remains dire,” Rasmussen wrote. “There’s been an explosion of human cases. … More human sequencing is a trend we need to reverse: We need fewer infected humans, period.”
Michael Mina, an infectious disease immunologist, said to X the situation should be a “wake-up call” for the US response, which experts said has been sorely lacking.
Scott Gottlieb, former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration said to X that in the “low-probability scenario” of bird flu becoming a widespread outbreak, “the United States will have only itself to blame. Agriculture officials did almost everything wrong last year, hoping that (the) virus would run out and it didn’t.”
The CDC has confirmed 65 cases of H5N1 bird flu in humans in 2024. Most of the cases were caused by exposure to infected livestock, while others were found in people working on poultry farms in corral and slaughter operations.
The number of infected cattle herds continues to rise, with California being the most affected state. As of Thursday, 685 herds in the state tested positive for H5N1, according to the US Department of Agriculture. Nationally, there are 901 infected herds in 16 states.
The CDC said the public risk remains low and that the detection of genetic changes “underscores the importance of ongoing genomic surveillance in people and animals, containment of outbreaks of avian influenza A (H5) in dairy cattle and poultry and preventive measures among people with exposure”. to animals or infected environments”.
