2 people hospitalised with bird flu in Wyoming and Ohio, potential emergence of deadlier virus sparks fear

“This shows that H5N1 can be very severe and we should not assume that it will always be mild,” said Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization at the University of Saskatchewan.

Fears over the emergence of a more dangerous virus

This is being considered one of the worst seasonal flu outbreaks in 15 years. There are concerns about a more dangerous virus emerging, combining bird flu and seasonal flu in a process called reassortment.

“I am very worried about H5N1 in patients that are being treated in hospitals where there are also many seasonal flu patients because this creates opportunities for reassortment, which could potentially produce a pandemic-capable H5N1,” Rasmussen said.

These are reportedly the very first human H5 cases detected in Wyoming and Ohio.

A statement from the Wyoming department of health said that an “older” woman from Platte county, Wyoming, was admitted to a hospital in another state, and “has health conditions that can make people more vulnerable to illness,” according to The Guardian. The woman was infected while being exposed to poultry in a backyard flock that tested positive for H5N1, the CDC report claimed. On the other hand, a man in Mercer county, Ohio, was infected while depopulating, or killing, H5N1-positive poultry at a commercial facility, the Ohio department of health said in a statement. He has now been discharged from the hospital “and is now recovering at home,” according to the CDC report.

In the US, there have been 70 confirmed cases of the highly pathogenic avian influenza so far. It was first detected in cows last year.