With reports of the first human death from bird flu in the US, some Americans are feeling an uncomfortable flashback to the early days of Covid-19, when infectious disease experts were talking about a new virus that was sending people to the hospital with respiratory infections.

The U.S. has experienced its first death from H5N1 bird flu. Here’s what happened, plus how concerned you should be, according to doctors.

Bird flu, also known as avian influenza or H5N1, has infected more than 130 million birds over the past two years as it threatened commercial bird operations and recently led to the first human death in the United States.

The bird flu, also known as avian influenza and H5N1, was implicated in the first human death from the infectious disease on January 6. But still, no human-to-human transmission has been reported.

The case in Louisiana is the first human death from bird flu in the U.S. during this current outbreak, but there was a death in Mexico back in May 2024 in a patient with no known exposure to farm animals. The case, much like the patient in Louisiana, was in a person with other underlying conditions, though it’s not clear what those may have been.

A patient who had been hospitalized with bird flu dies of the disease, the Louisiana Department of Public Health reports, and Iowa has new outbreak

Moderna surged as investors turned eyed potential demand for a vaccine to protect against bird flu after the US reported its first death from the virus.