CDC warns of bird flu mutations in first severe U.S. case [Video]

A genetic analysis of samples from the Louisiana patient who was recently hospitalized with the country’s first severe case of H5N1 bird flu shows that the virus likely mutated in the patient to become potentially more transmissible to humans, but there’s no evidence that the virus has been passed to anyone else.The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said earlier this month that the patient was likely infected after contacting sick and dead birds in a backyard flock. In an analysis Thursday, the agency said the mutations it identified in samples taken during the patient’s hospitalization weren’t found in the birds, suggesting they aren’t in the virus widely circulating in wildlife.The mutations, similar to ones observed in a hospitalized patient in British Columbia, Canada, may make it easier for the virus to bind to cell receptors in humans’ upper respiratory tracts, the agency said in its analysis.“The changes observed …