CDC says bird flu virus likely mutated within a US patient

FILE - This image obtained Nov. 22, 2024, courtesy of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, shows a colorized electron micrograph of bird flu cells (in blue).

A genetic analysis suggests the bird flu virus mutated inside a Louisiana patient who contracted the nation’s first severe case of the illness, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said this week.