H5N1 usually spreads to people through contact with infected or dead birds, as with the Louisiana patient. Currently, there are no known cases of human-to-human transmission, said the CDC's Dr. Demetre Daskalakis.

A person in Louisiana has the first severe illness caused by bird flu in the U.S., health officials said Wednesday.

The outbreak of bird flu in dairy herds across the country has public health officials worried that the virus might mutate in such a way that it could start a human epidemic. But it could be a different mammal altogether that sparks an outbreak in humans: Cats.

The bird flu is in Louisiana. The CDC has confirmed someone in Louisiana is now the first person in the United States with a severe case of the virus.

A patient in Louisiana has been hospitalized with a severe case of H5N1 bird flu, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said, the first such case in the United States.

We are in a terrible situation and going into a worse situation,” said Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at the University of Saskatchewan in Canada.

In a case first reported in Louisiana, a patient has now developed the first known case of bird flu so severe as to require hospitalization.

A chilling milestone in U.S. public health has been confirmed. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently announced the nation’s first severe case of avian

The first human-case of the bird flu has been reported in Los Angeles County. The person who caught it is believed to be recovering with mild symptoms.