Washington reports first US bird flu death of 2026; health officials say risk to the public is low

YAKIMA, Wash. — A person who caught bird flu after being exposed to infected dairy cows has died following a severe illness, Yakima County health officials said on Sunday.

This is the first person in the U.S. to die from complications of avian influenza in 2026, and the third in the U.S. to die from bird flu since February 2024, when the virus jumped into dairy cattle for the first time. So far, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recorded bird flu cases in more than 70 people in the U.S. since 2024.

Most people who've become ill have worked on farms with infected cattle or poultry. Health officials say most cases have been mild and all have been so-called "dead-end" infections, where a virus jumps from an animal to a person but doesn't spread farther.

So far, no human-to-human transmission of bird flu has been documented in the U.S. health officials say the risk to the public remains low.

Yakima County health officials said they are closely monitoring the contacts of the person who died to ensure they didn't pass the infection to anyone else.

On Oct. 31, the Yakima County Health District reported a person who had come into contact with infected cattle was hospitalized with a severe case of bird flu. The person had underlying health conditions, but the county did not specify what they were. On Nov. 1, the county reported the person had died.

Yakima County officials also said a third person exposed to infected cattle has tested positive. All three Washington cases have occurred since mid-October and resulted from exposure to infected cows. The third case has mild symptoms and has not been hospitalized, county health district officials said.

Since Oct. 8, Washington has reported 33 dairy herds infected with the H5N1 bird flu virus. The state is urging people who work at the dairies to wear personal protective equipment and report their symptoms if they feel ill.