The case in Louisiana is the first human death from bird flu in the U.S. during this current outbreak, but there was a death in Mexico back in May 2024 in a patient with no known exposure to farm animals. The case, much like the patient in Louisiana, was in a person with other underlying conditions, though it’s not clear what those may have been.

The Louisiana Department of Health said on Monday that a U.S. patient hospitalized with H5N1 bird flu had died, the country's first death from an outbreak of the virus that has sickened dozens of people and millions of poultry and cattle.

A U.S. patient was the first to die from the H5N1 bird flu in Louisiana. 70 people contracted the virus since April, mostly livestock workers. The elderly patient had underlying conditions and was exposed to backyard chickens and wild birds.

The other 65 known cases in the U.S. have all had been mild, though a 13-year-old girl in Canada with H5N1 also had severe illness.

The U.S. has recorded its first human death from bird flu, in a patient hospitalized in Louisiana. The case was considered the country’s first severe human H5N1 infection.