Bird flu mutated inside US patient, raising concern

WASHINGTON: The bird flu virus found in a severely ill patient hospitalized in the United States has mutated to become better adapted to human airways, though there is no evidence it has spread beyond the individual, authorities said.

Earlier this month, officials announced an elderly Louisiana patient was in “critical condition” with a severe H5N1 infection.

An analysis posted by the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on its website on Thursday found that a small percentage of the virus detected in the patient´s throat had genetic changes that may lead to “increased virus binding” to certain “cell receptors found in the upper respiratory tract of humans.”

Importantly, these changes have not been found in birds, including in the backyard poultry flock thought to have infected the Louisiana patient initially.