A study of the virus from a Louisiana patient with severe bird flu found changes that might make it easier to spread among humans, according to the CDC.
These changes, which were not seen in wild birds, probably happened while the patient was sick.
Virologist Angela Rasmussen said this is good news because it lowers the chance of the virus spreading to humans and shows that viruses adapted to humans aren’t coming from birds.
The patient had been around sick and dead birds in backyard flocks.The CDC also pointed out that these changes are similar to those found in a hospitalized patient in British Columbia, which could help the virus attach to human respiratory cells.
While this is worrying, the CDC stressed that it would be more concerning if these changes were found in animals or early cases. Importantly, there’s no evidence that the Louisiana patient spread the virus to anyone else.
