Health officials say a person in the state of Washington has a new form of bird flu virus. <\/p>\n
The virus, H5N5, never has been seen in a person before. It appeared first in 2023 in birds and mammals in eastern Canada. The strain was confirmed<\/a> by the Washington State Department of Health on Friday.<\/p>\n \u201cGiven the rarity of such infections in humans and the fact that this person was hospitalized, there is an urgency to figure out how this person may have come in contact with the virus and whether anyone else was infected,\u201d said Jennifer Nuzzo, director of the Pandemic Center at Brown University in Providence, R.I.<\/p>\n Epidemiologists and virologists worry that avian influenzas could generate a pandemic if allowed to spread and mutate. For instance, the H5N1 virus circulating in dairy cattle in North America is one mutation away<\/a> from being able spread easily between people.<\/p>\n \u201cAnytime someone is infected with a novel influenza virus, we want to gather as much information as we can to be sure the virus hasn\u2019t gained the ability to more easily infect and spread between humans, which would trigger a pandemic,\u201d Nuzzo said.<\/p>\n The case involves a person who lives in Grays Harbor County on the Olympic Peninsula. Their illness became severe enough that they were transferred to a hospital in more populous Thurston County and then to King County, where Seattle is located. <\/p>\n Melissa Dibble, a spokesperson for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, confirmed the Washington health department\u2019s finding, and said the patient had a backyard flock of \u201cmixed domestic poultry.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe domestic poultry or wild birds are the most likely source of virus exposure,\u201d she said in an email.<\/p>\n According to a news release<\/a> from county health officials, the person is \u201colder\u201d and has underlying health conditions. Their symptoms included a high fever, confusion and trouble breathing. The person has been hospitalized since early November. <\/p>\n \u201cThe fact that the patient experienced severe illness from this infection only increases the urgency to know more about this particular case,\u201d Nuzzo said.<\/p>\n Henry Niman, an evolutionary molecular biologist and founder of Recombinomics Inc., a virus and vaccine research company in Pittsburgh, said other animals and birds in Canada also have been infected, including a red fox, cat and raccoon.<\/p>\n