The death comes at a time when the H5N1 virus has recently undergone an unusual mutation that is causing concern to the World Health Organization.

The first human death from bird flu in the United States has intensified calls for the government to ramp up efforts to stave off the threat of another pandemic -- particularly ahead of Donald Trump's return to the White House.

The first patient hospitalized with avian influenza in the United States has died in Louisiana, the state's department of health announced Monday.

The bird flu, also known as avian influenza and H5N1, was implicated in the first human death from the infectious disease on January 6. But still, no human-to-human transmission has been reported.

The risk of catching H5N1 bird flu remains low, and there have been no reported cases of person-to-person spread.

The U.S. will rebuild its stockpile of bird flu vaccines for poultry matched to the current strain of the virus circulating among commercial flocks and wild birds, the Department of Agriculture said on Wednesday.

The LDH revealed that the patient was over age 65, had underlying medical conditions and contracted bird flu after exposure to both wild birds and a non-commercial backyard flock.

Any time a person catches H5N1, or bird flu, their infection is a chance for the virus to mutate in the wrong direction. When someone dies from the bird flu—as an elderly Louisiana man did on Jan. 6,

More should be done to control the spread of bird flu among animals to avoid more cases in humans, the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) said on Wednesday, following the first death of a patient from the virus in the United States.

With reports of the first human death from bird flu in the US, some Americans are feeling an uncomfortable flashback to the early days of Covid-19, when infectious disease experts were talking about a new virus that was sending people to the hospital with respiratory infections.