
A person in Louisiana has been hospitalized with H5N1 bird flu, marking the United States' first severe case of the illness.
In a statement released Wednesday (Dec. 18), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) noted that, in total, 61 people in the U.S. have had a confirmed case of H5N1 this year. Of the previous 60 cases, 37 caught the virus from dairy cows, 21 from poultry, and two from unknown sources. The presumptive case was first announced by Louisiana Friday and was confirmed by CDC tests the same day.