The Louisiana Department of Health said on Monday that a U.S. patient hospitalized with H5N1 bird flu had died, the country's first death from an outbreak of the virus that has sickened dozens of people and millions of poultry and cattle.

The U.S. has recorded its first human death from bird flu, in a patient hospitalized in Louisiana. The case was considered the country’s first severe human H5N1 infection.

As bird flu wreaks havoc across the United States, with devastating consequences for birds, dairy herds, and even humans, the decision not to vaccinate poultry has increasingly come under scrutiny. While other countries have used vaccines as part of their strategy to control outbreaks of the highly pathogenic H5N1 virus,

The U.S. has recorded its first fatal case of H5N1 bird flu, in a person from Louisiana who contracted the virus from infected chickens and wild birds in a backyard flock.

The first person has died of bird flu in the United States, the Louisiana Department of Health confirmed on Monday. The patient, who was exposed to non-commercial backyard flock and wild birds, was over age 65 and had underlying medical conditions,