In a development that health experts have warned might come, Canadian officials report that the bird flu virus isolated from a sick teen in Vancouver shows mutations that could help it spread more easily among humans.

At this point, there is no evidence that this particular mutated H5N1 virus has traveled beyond the one Canadian patient: After monitoring of dozens of potential contacts am...

A child in California has tested positive for bird flu, despite having no known contact with infected animals, state officials reported Tuesday.

"California has identified a possible bird flu case in a child in Alameda County who was tested for mild upper respiratory symptoms. The child, who has been treated, is recovering at home," t...

Amid an ongoing outbreak of bird flu in American dairy herds and poultry flocks, Canadian officials have announced that a teen in British Columbia has been hospitalized in critical condition with what is believed to be bird flu.

It’s not clear how the teenager picked up the H5N1 virus because the patient is not known to have any contact with infected animals, officials noted. They a...

The H5N1 strain of avian flu is now passing easily among South America's elephant seals and drastically cutting herd populations, a new report finds.

"It is likely that more than half of the reproductive population died due to the virus. It will take decades before the numbers are back to the 2022 population size," said Vale...

About 7% of dairy workers exposed to the avian flu that is spreading through U.S. herds have become infected themselves, federal experts estimate.

That number highlights concerns that circulating strains of bird flu might become highly infectious in humans, according to a new report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“The findings support the need for ac...

Amid an ongoing outbreak of bird flu in poultry and dairy cows in the United States, a case of H5N1 has now been confirmed for the first time in a pig.

"The U.S. Department of Agriculture [USDA] and Oregon state veterinary officials are investigating positive cases of H5N1 in a backyard farming operation in Oregon that has a mix of poultry and livestock, including swine," the USDA sa...

A second person in Missouri who wasn't exposed to either poultry or dairy cows has been infected with bird flu, U.S. health officials reported Thursday.

This person shared a home with a patient who was first hospitalized with bird flu in August, but antibody tests have since shown that symptomatic health care workers who cared for the patient were not infected with the H5N1 virus, the U....

TUESDAY, Oct. 22, 2024 (HealthDayNews) -- Four farm workers who helped cull poultry on an commercial egg farm in Washington are presumed to have been infected with bird flu, making that state the sixth in the country to report human H5N1 infections this year.

"These are the first presumed human cases of H5 virus under investigation in Washington state," the state department of health said...

As an outbreak of bird flu among dairy cows continues to spread in the United States, two more cases have been reported in dairy workers, this time in California.

These are the first human cases of bird flu reported in that state and the 15th and 16th human cases detected in the country this year, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday.

"The identification...

In what could be the first cases of bird flu spreading between humans in the United States, a group of potential H5N1 infections in Missouri has now grown to eight.

Antibody tests to confirm any H5N1 infection are still pending.

After a patient with bird flu was hospitalized last month, state and federal health officials first determined the patient may have infected one household m...

Another health care worker who was exposed to a Missouri patient who tested positive for bird flu developed respiratory symptoms but wasn't tested for the flu, U.S. health officials reported Friday.

The news is rekindling worries of person-to-person transmission of the H5N1 bird flu strain.

The week before, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that a differe...

An extensive look at wastewater samples taken across the United States from May to July found traces of the H5N1 bird flu popping up -- but only in areas populated by farm animals.

The avian flu virus has been widespread in U.S. poultry as well as herds of dairy cows, raising alarms that the virus might somehow mutate and spread between people.

The wastewater testing performed betwe...

MONDAY, Sept. 16, 2024 (Healthday News) -- In a disclosure that can't eliminate the possibility that bird flu may have spread from one human to another for the first time, U.S. health officials have reported that a person who lived with a Missouri resident infected with H5N1 became sick the same day.

That close contact "was also ill at the same time, was not tested, and has since recovere...

In a case that continues to confound scientists, U.S. health officials said Thursday that they still don't know how a Missouri patient caught the bird flu and that the case may just be a rare anomaly.

As bird flu continues to spread through dairy cow herds and poultry flocks, the