A person has been hospitalized with bird flu in Louisiana, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), marking the first time since the outbreak began that an infection with the H5N1 virus reached such severity. Although another severe case hospitalized in a teenager in Canada last month, this is the first severe case reported in the U.S.
This case brings this outbreak's total number of human infections to 61, though many cases may be going uncounted. Most of these infections occur among farmworkers who come into contact with dairy cows and poultry, which the virus is infecting and massacring in massive numbers. This week, seven more outbreaks were reported among Californian dairy herds, bringing the total number of herds affected across the country to 860. More than 123 million poultry and more than 10,000 wild birds (with 300 million dead birds worldwide) have been affected.
