A Yakima County resident has died from bird flu following exposure at an infected dairy farm in Washington state, health officials announced Sunday. The death is the third reported among people in the United States since a highly pathogenic strain of avian influenza began spreading to dairy cattle.
The resident had underlying health conditions that could have increased their vulnerability to the infection, officials said. County authorities reported on Friday that the person was hospitalized and severely ill. Sunday's announcement confirmed the death, but officials said they would withhold additional personal details, including the resident's name, age and gender, to respect the family's privacy.
Dave Atteberry, health officer for the Yakima Health District, expressed sympathy for the family and loved ones of the person who died. He said avian influenza can lead to severe illness, especially in people with underlying health conditions. Despite the fatal outcome, he said, “the risk to the general public remains low.”
The death comes as Washington officials track human infections associated with the virus's presence in the state's dairy cattle. Three people in Washington have tested positive for bird flu since infections in dairy cattle were reported in the state on October 8. All three human cases have been reported in Yakima County.
Officials disclosed the third human case on Sunday in the same announcement that reported the death. That person had been exposed to an infected dairy herd in the county. The person identified in the county's first case also had exposure to an infected dairy herd. Neither of those two people reportedly experienced severe illness, and neither was hospitalized.
Those outcomes differ from the severe illness reported in the resident who died. Officials identified underlying health conditions as a possible factor in that person's vulnerability, while declining to release further information about the individual. Atteberry's statement paired a warning about the potential severity of infection with the assessment that the broader public continues to face a low risk.
The US first reported the unprecedented transmission of highly pathogenic H5 avian influenza from wild migratory birds to dairy cows in March 2024. The Yakima County resident's death brings the national number of human bird flu deaths since that development to three.
