A per­son in Louisiana has the first se­vere ill­ness caused by bird flu in the U.S., health of­fi­cials said Wednes­day.

The pa­tient had been in con­tact with sick and dead birds in back­yard flocks, the Cen­ters for Dis­ease Con­trol and Pre­ven­tion said. Agency of­fi­cials didn’t im­me­di­ate­ly de­tail the per­son’s symp­toms.

Pre­vi­ous ill­ness­es in the U.S. had been mild and the vast ma­jor­i­ty had been among farm­work­ers ex­posed to sick poul­try or dairy cows.

This year, more than 60 bird flu in­fec­tions have been re­port­ed, with over half of them in Cal­i­for­nia. In two — an adult in Mis­souri and a child in Cal­i­for­nia — health of­fi­cials have not de­ter­mined how they caught it.

The CDC con­firmed the Louisiana in­fec­tion on Fri­day, but did not an­nounce it un­til Wednes­day. It’s al­so the first U.S. hu­man case linked to ex­po­sure to a back­yard flock, the agency said.

The Mis­souri pa­tient al­so was hos­pi­tal­ized, but for rea­sons be­yond just the bird flu in­fec­tion. The Louisiana case is dif­fer­ent be­cause the per­son’s hos­pi­tal­iza­tion is due to the flu symp­toms, CDC of­fi­cials said.

Did the Louisiana pa­tient have pre-ex­ist­ing con­di­tions that made him or her more sus­cep­ti­ble to ill­ness? Is the per­son on a ven­ti­la­tor? The CDC de­ferred those and oth­er ques­tions about the pa­tient to state health of­fi­cials, who did not im­me­di­ate­ly re­spond.

Last month, Cana­di­an of­fi­cials re­port­ed that a teen in British Co­lum­bia was hos­pi­tal­ized with a se­vere case of bird flu. CDC of­fi­cials did not an­swer a ques­tion about whether the new U.S. case had any sim­i­lar­i­ties or dif­fer­ences, di­rect­ing re­porters to ask Louisiana of­fi­cials.

Health of­fi­cials say bird flu is still main­ly an an­i­mal health is­sue, and the risk to the gen­er­al pub­lic re­mains low. There’s been no doc­u­ment­ed spread of the virus from per­son to per­son. —NEW YORK (AP)

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Sto­ry by MIKE STO­BBE and JONEL ALEC­CIA | As­so­ci­at­ed Press