A US patient who had been hospitalised with H5N1 bird flu has died, the Louisiana Department of Health said, marking the country’s first reported human death from the virus. “The patient contracted H5N1 after exposure to a combination of a non-commercial backyard flock and wild birds,” the Louisiana Department of Health said in a statement on Monday. Despite this death, the public health risk posed by bird flu remains “low,” the statement said, adding that it had detected no human-to-human transmission.
