Bird flu leads to severe human illness and state of emergency, experts discuss risk

Bird flu (H5N1) continues to spark warnings around the country.

The patient, who lives in southwestern Louisiana, is currently hospitalized, according to a release from the Louisiana Department of Health (LDH).

The LDH is working with the CDC on genomic testing of the virus infecting the hospitalized patient. Fox News Digital reached out to the department for comment.

There have been a total of 61 human cases throughout the country since April 2024.

Despite the low risk, California Governor Gavin Newsom on Wednesday declared a state of emergency due to the bird flu.

"This proclamation is a targeted action to ensure government agencies have the resources and flexibility they need to respond quickly to this outbreak," Newsom said in a statement. 

Sam Scarpino, PhD, director of AI and life sciences at Northeastern University in Boston, said the "tragic case" in Louisiana is evidence of the "widespread nature" of H5N1 in the U.S.

"It also reinforces the very serious situation we are facing," he told Fox News Digital.

"We need to take more decisive action to control the spread of H5N1 in animal populations. Until then, we will continue to see human spillover cases, and some of them will unfortunately be severe."

"We'd have to know more about the patient's particular medical details," he told Fox News Digital. "We can't conclude [from one case] that it's becoming more severe in humans."

Previous iterations of bird flu have had a 50% death rate in humans, Siegel noted, but the 61 human cases in the U.S. this year have been "very mild."

"That is actually a good sign, that the virus is mutating away from severity, as traditionally H5N1 makes humans very sick," he told Fox News Digital. 

The most critical thing to watch, according to the doctor, is whether bird flu will begin to spread from human to human. 

"It hasn't up until now, and that's because it would take some mutations - at least one. We're tracking that, but probably not closely enough."

The vast majority of recent human cases have stemmed from direct contact with animals, he said - "but it's now spread into the cattle population and into milk, which worries a lot of people, including me."

Rebecca C. Christofferson, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Pathobiological Sciences at Louisiana State University, commented to Fox News Digital about the potential for a pandemic.

"The more the virus gets into mammals and then the more it passes from mammal to mammal, the greater the concern that it will adapt to mammals and spread more easily among them and then spill over into humans," Christofferson added.

"Nobody wants another pandemic."

The good news, Cristofferson said, is that it's easy to protect yourself from catching bird flu. 

"If you have to handle birds or suspected ill animals (or be around ill people), wearing gloves and masks and washing your hands will protect you as it does with other respiratory viruses."