A Louisiana resident has died after being hospitalized for a severe case of H5N1 bird flu, the state's health department said Monday. The big picture: This marks the first bird flu-related human death in the U.

The Louisiana Department of Health said on Monday that a U.S. patient hospitalized with H5N1 bird flu has died.

The case in Louisiana is the first human death from bird flu in the U.S. during this current outbreak, but there was a death in Mexico back in May 2024 in a patient with no known exposure to farm animals. The case, much like the patient in Louisiana, was in a person with other underlying conditions, though it’s not clear what those may have been.