Poultry breeder from America
Bird flu: First person known to be infected with H5N5 dies
Updated 11/22/2025 – 15:24Reading time: 2 minutes
About a week ago, human infections with the H5N5 avian influenza virus were first reported in the US. The sick person has now died.
The person confirmed to have contracted the H5N5 bird flu virus for the first time in the world has died. Poultry farmers from the Grays Harbor area were older and had pre-existing medical conditions, the Washington State Department of Health in Olympia said, stressing: “The risk to the public remains low.” In mid-November, the ministry announced that the poultry farmer was infected. Previously, H5N5 was only detected in animals.
The virus was not detected in the other people involved. There is no evidence that this virus is transmitted between humans. The deceased came to the hospital in early November with flu symptoms. He kept pet birds in his backyard that had come into contact with wild birds.
Germany’s Friedrich Loeffler Institute – the Federal Research Institute for Animal Health – was also not aware of any reports of H5N5 infections in humans before the cases occurred in the US, as its spokesperson announced in mid-November. However, infections also occur in animals in Germany. “As long as it’s the 2.3.4.4b H5N5 strain, it’s not a drastic change at first,” he added at the time, referring to infecting a person.
The largest bird flu wave ever documented has been raging since 2022, stretching across several continents. However, this is about the highly pathogenic – that is, highly pathogenic – H5N1 virus. This disease mainly attacks birds, but is also found in some mammals. Germany, among others, was again affected. On German poultry farms, around 1.5 million animals have been killed in recent weeks due to evidence of bird flu in the pens.
In principle, the H5N1 subtype can also be transmitted to humans at high infectious doses. According to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), there have been no reported cases of H5N1 in humans in Germany.
According to the US health authority CDC, there were 71 cases of bird flu and one human death in the US before the current fatality (as of November 14) – although it is unclear which subtype this refers to. Most are related to raising dairy cattle or poultry.
