{"id":305845,"date":"2025-11-25T11:57:20","date_gmt":"2025-11-25T11:57:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/305845\/"},"modified":"2025-11-25T11:57:20","modified_gmt":"2025-11-25T11:57:20","slug":"washington-patient-dies-after-rare-bird-flu-infection-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/305845\/","title":{"rendered":"Washington Patient Dies After Rare Bird Flu Infection | Health"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>                                Key Takeaways<\/p>\n<p>A rare bird flu case in Washington has led to a death<\/p>\n<p>The specific strain had not been seen in humans before<\/p>\n<p>Officials say the overall public risk is low<\/p>\n<p>MONDAY, Nov. 24, 2025 (HealthDay News) \u2014 A rare bird flu virus has claimed the life of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.healthday.com\/health-news\/infectious-disease\/washington-reports-first-human-case-of-rare-bird-flu-strain\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">a Washington state resident<\/a>, making it the first known human case of this specific strain in the U.S.<\/p>\n<p>State health officials said the patient, an older adult with underlying medical conditions, died on Friday after being hospitalized since early November.<\/p>\n<p>The person had been infected with H5N5 avian influenza, a strain that had only been seen before in animals, not in humans.<\/p>\n<p>The individual was &#8220;a severely ill patient,&#8221; state epidemiologist <a href=\"https:\/\/epi.washington.edu\/faculty\/lindquist-scott\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Dr. Scott Lindquist<\/a> told\u00a0The Washington Post.<\/p>\n<p>Health officials stressed that the risk to the public is still low.<\/p>\n<p>No one else has tested positive for bird flu and more than 100 healthcare workers and close contacts are now being monitored for symptoms to rule out human-to-human spread.<\/p>\n<p>Officials said the person cares for a mixed backyard flock and two birds had died weeks earlier. Wild birds also had access to the property, making poultry or wild birds the most likely source of exposure.<\/p>\n<p>While H5N5 is different from the more common H5N1 strain that has spread widely among animals and people worldwide, experts say the two strains behave similarly.<\/p>\n<p>Since 2024, 70 people in the U.S. have tested positive for bird flu, mostly workers exposed to infected dairy cattle or poultry.<\/p>\n<p>State officials continue to monitor anyone who had contact with the Washington patient\u2019s birds or bird environment.<\/p>\n<p>More information<\/p>\n<p>The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more on the current\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/bird-flu\/situation-summary\/index.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">H5 bird flu situation<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>SOURCE:\u00a0The Washington Post, Nov. 21, 2025<\/p>\n<p>What This Means For You<\/p>\n<p>Health officials say the overall risk of bird flu to the public is low, but people who raise backyard birds or work with animals should take precautions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Key Takeaways A rare bird flu case in Washington has led to a death The specific strain had&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":305846,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[44323,44321,68340,49,48,50975,14428,84,13930,14427,2852,2993,2724,60479,68339,14426,1058,32674,44326,2727,44327,44322,9962],"class_list":["post-305845","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-animal-diseases","tag-animal-viral-diseases","tag-avian-influenza","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-consumer-news","tag-diseases-and-disorders","tag-health","tag-health-sciences","tag-human-diseases-and-disorders","tag-immunology","tag-infectious-disease","tag-infectious-diseases","tag-influenza","tag-influenza-a-virus-subtype-h5n1","tag-medical-specialties","tag-medicine","tag-microbiology","tag-primate-diseases","tag-public-health","tag-vaccine-preventable-diseases","tag-viral-diseases","tag-virology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305845","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=305845"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305845\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/305846"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=305845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=305845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=305845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}