Bird flu kills a Washington state resident, first in a year

A person in Yakima County, Washington has died after contracting bird flu. State health officials said Sunday the resident had pre-existing conditions and had been hospitalized after exposure to infected cattle. It's the first US death from the virus in roughly a year. Officials haven't named the person or given more details about their condition.

This isn't a new outbreak. Bird flu has been spreading in US dairy cattle since early 2024, infecting farm workers along the way. Most human cases have been mild, usually just eye infections or respiratory symptoms. Deaths from this strain are rare in the US. The bigger worry for scientists isn't this one case. It's whether the virus mutates to spread easily between people, which hasn't happened yet.

Keep reading — what to watch

Will this change how the government responds to the dairy cattle outbreak? It might. Funding and staffing for bird flu surveillance have been uneven for two years. A human death tends to bring more attention and money. Watch whether the USDA or CDC tighten monitoring rules for dairy farms, especially ones that haven't reported infections before.