A woman in Wyoming was hospitalized with H5N1 aviar flu, according to health officials who say she was probably infected by driving sick birds on a backyard flock.
According to a statement from the Wyoming Public Health Department, the woman is “an older adult” and has “other health conditions”, which may have made it more susceptible to the disease. She is being treated in another state.
This marks the first human flu case in Wyoming and the 70th human case in the United States since 2024. Although the website of the US disease control and prevention center lists only 68 human cases on its website, It still does not include this case or another announced earlier this week in a poultry worker in Ohio.
It is also the fourth person in North America that has been hospitalized with the disease. A person in Louisiana died of infection.
It is not clear if it was infected with version D1.1 of the H5N1 virus, which is now widespread in wild birds, birds of birds and cattle in Nevada and Arizona, or version B3.13, which is associated with the great Most dairy herds.
According to the United States Department of Agriculture, 968 dairy herds have been infected in 16 states; This does not include the pack in Arizona that was reported earlier this week.
“While this is a significant development since the activity of aviar flu is monitored in Wyoming and throughout the country, it is not something that we believe requires a high level of concern among most Wyoming residents,” said the Dr. Alexia Harrist, state health officer and state epidemiologist with the Wyoming Department of Health.
H5N1 has been reported in wild birds in Wyoming. Infections have also been reported in birds and commercial dairy cattle of the State.
Harrist and CDC say there is no evidence to transmit from human to human virus, and the risk for the general public remains low.
She recommended that people do not eat raw or little cooked eggs, meat or other animal products, that avoid contact with wild birds and do not touch wild or domestic birds sick or morbundas. He also said that people should not drink raw milk or dairy products of raw milk.
