The patient from Missouri has recovered, but health officials are still investigating how they became infected.

US health officials have confirmed a human case of bird flu in a patient that had no immediately known animal exposure.

The patient, in the state of Missouri, was treated in hospital and has since recovered, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said.

It is the 14th human case of bird flu in the US in 2024 and the first without a known occupational exposure to infected animals, according to the CDC.

  • kerrigan778@lemmy.world
    0·
    12 days ago

    For the record, the law of declining virulence, while still referenced a lot, has been disproven and was never a real scientific theory, just one scientists educated guess that took off.

    • єχтяαναgαηтєηzумє@lemm.eeEnglish
      0·
      11 days ago

      Then why does bird flu have more invasive symptoms and a higher mortality rate compared to human influenza’s? I was taught by a virologist who’s been around the block many times and got her PhD in the USSR. She was adamant that a parasite never wants to kill it’s host, as this results in no longer being able to reproduce in the host and shortens it’s reproduction time in future host.

      Most viral offspring are not capable of infection, as without mutations, viruses would not be able to reproduce effectively and could not adapt to changing environments. To disprove a hypothesis simply means one aspect of the statement is incorrect. So while the cause and effect occurs, the explanation for why wasn’t dialed. Or at least, this would be my guess for how it could have been disproven.

      • merthyr1831@lemmy.mlEnglish
        0·
        11 days ago

        The same relationship of the cost of high virulence hurting the fitness of a pathogen may not apply if hosts are kept in proximity that a fast death doesn’t necessarily mean the pathogen cannot find a new host.

        It may have been how the 1918 flu pandemic was so deadly yet still successful at spreading to new hosts; being spread amongst soldiers in trenches and infirmaries and troop ships compared.

        Plus, there are evolutionary pressures on pathogens to become more virulent; using less resources by the host only leads to being outcompeted by more virulent pathogens. While mortality is a limiting factor, there is a temporary benefit to strategies that select for virulence until that limit is reached.