No Alarm Yet — But Bird Flu Just Mutated — In Louisiana Patient: CIDRAP

The concern is that this new mutation may more easily infect humans' upper respiratory tracts. And regular readers will recall that the first confirmed US children's case was seen in California about a month ago, now.

The "Louisiana" mutated form of virus hasn't been shown to easily invade hosts in the wild yet, but experts in Minnesota say it now plainly has that potential, as a matter of pure biology. Here's the latest, out of San Diego:

. . .The CDC said the mutations in that patient were similar to ones observed in a hospitalized patient in British Columbia, Canada. The changes may make it easier for the virus to bind to receptors in a person’s upper respiratory tract.

“Although concerning, and a reminder that A(H5N1) viruses can develop changes during the clinical course of a human infection, these changes would be more concerning if found in animal hosts or in early stages of infection. . . when these changes might be more likely to facilitate spread to close contacts,” the CDC said in the report. "Notably, in this case, no transmission from the patient in Louisiana to other persons has been identified. . . ."

Now you know. Onward -- be careful out there.

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