The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday that an analysis of samples from a critically ill patient of the country’s first bird flu outbreak last week revealed mutations not seen in samples taken from an infected backyard flock on the patient’s property. announced that it had been found.
The CDC said the patient’s samples showed mutations in the hemagglutinin (HA) gene, a part of the virus that plays a key role in how the virus attaches to host cells.
The agency said the risk to the general public from the spread of infection has not changed and remains low.
Last week, the United States reported its first severe case of the virus, a Louisiana resident over the age of 65 who was suffering from severe respiratory illness.
The patient was infected with genotype D1.1 of the virus recently detected in wild birds and poultry in the United States, and genotype B3.13, which has been detected in dairy cattle, humans, and some poultry in several states. It wasn’t infected.
Although the mutation seen in this patient is rare, several cases have been reported in other countries, most often during severe infections. One of the mutations was also found in another severe case in British Columbia, Canada.
The CDC says the Louisiana patient is not known to have transmitted the virus to anyone else.
