Health
Bird flu leads to severe human illness and state of emergency; experts discuss risk
Bird flu (H5N1) continues to spark warnings around the country.
On Friday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirmed the country’s first severe case of bird flu in a human.
The patient, who lives in southwestern Louisiana, is currently hospitalized, according to a release from the Louisiana Department of Health (LDH).
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The infected person is known to have been exposed to sick and dead birds that are “suspected to have been infected,” the same source stated.
The LDH is working with the CDC on genomic testing of the virus infecting the hospitalized patient. Fox News Digital reached out to the department for comment.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday confirmed the country’s first severe case of bird flu in a human. (iStock)
There have been a total of 61 human cases throughout the country since April.
No human-to-human transmission has been reported, leading the CDC to maintain its stance that risk to the public is low.
GOVERNOR NEWSOM DECLARES STATE OF EMERGENCY IN CALIFORNIA DUE TO BIRD FLU
Despite the low risk, California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday declared a state of emergency due to the bird flu.
The declaration follows an outbreak of the virus among dairy cows in Southern California farms, according to the news release on the governor’s website.
“This proclamation is a targeted action to ensure government agencies have the resources and flexibility they need to respond quickly to this outbreak,” Newsom said in a statement.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday declared a state of emergency due to the bird flu. (Mario Tama)
“Building on California’s testing and monitoring system — the largest in the nation — we are committed to further protecting public health, supporting our agricultural industry, and ensuring that Californians have access to accurate, up-to-date information,” he continued.
“While the risk to the public remains low, we will continue to take all necessary steps to prevent the spread of this virus.”
Doctors discuss bird flu risk
Sam Scarpino, PhD, director of AI and life sciences at Northeastern University in Boston, said the “tragic case” in Louisiana is evidence of the “widespread nature” of H5N1 in the U.S.
“It also reinforces the very serious situation we are facing,” he told Fox News Digital.
“We need to take more decisive action to control the spread of H5N1 in animal populations.”
“We need to take more decisive action to control the spread of H5N1 in animal populations. Until then, we will continue to see human spillover cases, and some of them will unfortunately be severe.”
Dr. Marc Siegel, clinical professor of medicine at NYU Langone Health and Fox News senior medical analyst, pointed out that this severe case represents just one instance of the infection and is not necessarily cause for alarm.
No human-to-human transmission has been reported, leading the CDC to maintain its stance that risk to the public is low. (iStock)
“We’d have to know more about the patient’s particular medical details,” he told Fox News Digital. “We can’t conclude [from one case] that it’s becoming more severe in humans.”
Previous iterations of bird flu have had a 50% death rate in humans, Siegel noted, but the 61 human cases in the U.S. this year have been “very mild.”
“That is actually a good sign, that the virus is mutating away from severity, as traditionally H5N1 makes humans very sick,” he told Fox News Digital.
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The most critical thing to watch, according to the doctor, is whether bird flu will begin to spread from human to human.
“That’s the key thing we’re concerned about — that it doesn’t get into the upper respiratory tract among humans,” Siegel said.
“Bird flu is a group of influenza viruses that primarily circulate among bird populations,” an expert told Fox News Digital. “However, influenza viruses are also known to jump species, and bird flu has done this a few times in history.” (Uli Deck/picture alliance via Getty Images)
“It hasn’t up until now, and that’s because it would take some mutations — at least one. We’re tracking that, but probably not closely enough.”
The vast majority of recent human cases have stemmed from direct contact with animals, he said — “but it’s now spread into the cattle population and into milk, which worries a lot of people, including me.”
Rebecca C. Christofferson, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Pathobiological Sciences at Louisiana State University, commented to Fox News Digital about the potential for a pandemic.
“Nobody wants another pandemic.”
“Bird flu is a group of influenza viruses that primarily circulate among bird populations,” she told Fox News Digital.
“However, influenza viruses are also known to jump species, and bird flu has done this a few times in history.”
A researcher wears a protective suit while collecting samples of wildlife where the H5N1 bird flu virus was detected in Chilean Antarctic territory in Antarctica. (Reuters/Instituto Antartico Chileno)
“The more the virus gets into mammals and then the more it passes from mammal to mammal, the greater the concern that it will adapt to mammals and spread more easily among them and then spill over into humans,” Christofferson added.
“Nobody wants another pandemic.”
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The good news, Cristofferson said, is that it’s easy to protect yourself from catching bird flu.
“If you have to handle birds or suspected ill animals (or be around ill people), wearing gloves and masks and washing your hands will protect you as it does with other respiratory viruses,” she said.
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A distraught mother who thought she was having a heart attack was instead hospitalized with broken heart syndrome — otherwise known as takotsubo syndrome (TTS) — less than a year after her veteran son tragically took his own life.
Dawn Turner, 57, of the U.K., lost her son in August of last year.
Just last month, the mom of three awoke with “unbearable” chest pains, she said — and called an ambulance, worried she was going into cardiac arrest. But when she arrived at the hospital, doctors told her she was suffering from the effects of grief caused by a broken heart, as news agency SWNS reported.
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TTS is a temporary, reversible heart condition often triggered by extreme emotional or physical stress, such as grief, fear or severe illness, according to experts.
Symptoms usually mimic a heart attack, with sudden and severe chest pain and shortness of breath the most common — and it primarily affects women over the age of 50.
A mom whose soldier son took his own life feared she was suffering cardiac arrest — only to be told by hospital doctors that she was feeling the effects of grief caused by a broken heart. Dawn Turner, mother of deceased soldier Rob Homans, is pictured above, April 2026. (SWNS)
Turner, of Eckington in Worcester, said, “I was [sitting] downstairs earlier that night and thought I had a bit of indigestion. I went to bed and just couldn’t get comfortable — I was breaking out in a sweat and had heart palpitations.
“Then, around midnight, I had pain down my arm and in my jaw. I was still putting it down to indigestion… My partner Paul asked me if I was all right, and I said, ‘I think I’m having a heart attack.’”
HIDDEN CAUSE OF VETERANS’ STRUGGLES DRIVES RENEWED URGENCY IN VA MESSAGING
She said she couldn’t catch her breath — “and my heart felt as though it was missing a beat and then [started] thudding again. For those moments, I truly believed I was having a heart attack.”
“Your heart is all over the place — there’s an extra beat,” Turner was told.
She said her partner called emergency services, and an ambulance arrived within five minutes.
“They came in and linked me up to an ECG. They said, ‘Your heart is all over the place — there’s an extra beat, and it’s all over the place,’” she said, as SWNS reported.
Turner was rushed to the hospital by ambulance.
Turner is shown with her son in full dress uniform. He worked as an artilleryman and spent 10 years in the U.K.’s Royal Horse Artillery after joining in 2006. He was battling mental health challenges after his military service, and ultimately took his own life. (SWNS)
In emergency care, Turner was also given blood tests.
She added, “They came back and said I didn’t have the enzymes produced from a heart attack in my blood. But they said there [was] something going on.”
After undergoing more tests and seeing a cardiologist, Turner was told she had takotsubo syndrome.
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“I told [the doctor] that my heart feels broken. I told her about [my son] Rob, and she said it’s exactly that. She said it’s a real thing, and that I’d been under so much stress. The body can only take so much, and the grief and the stress can be quite physical.”
Turner’s son committed suicide in August 2025 after struggling to get help with his mental health.
He spent 10 years in the Royal Horse Artillery after joining in 2006, when he worked as an artilleryman.
Turner’s son did two tours of duty in Afghanistan, she said. After he returned to civilian life, he began suffering from a number of health conditions. She’s shown above with a flower-draped memorial to her son. (SWNS)
He did two tours of duty in Afghanistan, she said, and returned to civilian life in 2016 before suffering several worsening health conditions.
Turner, who is also the CEO of a veterans charity called Stepway, “When he left the army, he got married, and they settled down in London. He walked straight into a job as a delivery driver. But then his health took a downward spiral, and he started having digestive troubles.”
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He was eventually told he had PTSD — but those symptoms may be similar to those of mild traumatic brain injury, Turner said.
“He was deaf in one ear from using the guns,” she said. “He realized he was putting so much pressure on his marriage, so he moved back up with me. He started to build himself up — then COVID hit.”
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Turner said there were unfortunate delays as her son tried to get access to various services and facilities.
“When people lose loved ones, you’re obviously distraught, but you eventually find closure,” she said, per SWNS. “I found peace when I lost my sister in 2015. But with Rob, I can’t find closure because there’s no justice there.”
“I had never really understood that a person could become so overwhelmed by stress and grief that it physically affects the heart,” said the grieving mom. “Broken heart syndrome can look and feel like a heart attack.” (iStock)
Turner is now on the mend and hopes to be fully recovered in a couple of weeks, SWNS reported.
“Until that moment, I had never really understood that a person could become so overwhelmed by stress and grief that it physically affects the heart,” she shared. “Broken heart syndrome can look and feel like a heart attack. It was a warning sign for me, and for anyone. It can change the shape of one of your heart chambers … it can cause some serious damage.”
She added, “The cardiologist told me that thankfully, my heart itself is healthy and there was no damage, but that it will take around two weeks to a month for my heart to reboot itself.”
“Maybe the extra [heart]beat is for Rob. You are carrying on living for him,” her partner told her.
Turner was told she needed to rest, seek counseling and make lifestyle changes to reduce stress.
“Things have settled down, and I’m taking things easy — I’m pacing myself now, and I feel a lot better. Paul said, ‘Maybe the extra beat is for Rob. You are carrying on living for him.’”
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Turner said, “That broke me and healed me a little bit all at once.”
Fox News Digital previously reported that broken heart syndrome, which causes the heart to temporarily weaken, has been linked to the brain’s reaction to stress, as studies have found.
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In an article published in the European Heart Journal in March 2019, Swiss researchers said they found that the syndrome is linked to the way the brain communicates with the heart.
Broken heart syndrome, which causes the heart to temporarily weaken, has been linked to the brain’s reaction to stress, studies have found. (iStock)
Caused by intense emotional events, TTS is a rare, temporary condition that weakens the left ventricle and disrupts its normal pumping function.
The syndrome causes the heart’s main pumping chamber to change shape and get larger. The heart muscle becomes weaker, and its pumping action loses strength.
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Symptoms include sudden, intense chest pain, pressure or heaviness in the chest, along with shortness of breath.
It is treated with beta blockers and blood-thinning medicine to reduce risks of clots and other flareups.
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Eating too much salt has long been linked to high blood pressure, but new research suggests it could trick the immune system into prematurely aging the blood vessels.
A preclinical study recently published in the Journal of the American Heart Association has identified a biological chain reaction that links a salty diet to cardiovascular decay.
Scientists at the University of South Alabama observed that mice on a high-salt diet experienced rapid deterioration in their blood vessel function.
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After just four weeks of high sodium intake, the small arteries responsible for regulating blood flow lost their ability to relax, according to a press release.
The team found that the cells lining these vessels had entered a state of cellular senescence, a form of premature cellular aging in which cells stop dividing and release a mix of inflammatory signals that can damage surrounding tissue.
Excess salt has long been linked to high blood pressure, but a new study goes deeper into its effects on the cardiovascular system. (iStock)
The researchers tried to replicate this damage by exposing blood vessel cells directly to salt in a laboratory dish, but the cells showed no harmful effects.
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This suggests that salt isn’t directly causing damage to the vascular lining but that the real culprit may be the body’s own defense mechanism, the researchers noted.
Excess salt may trigger the immune system to release a molecule called interleukin-16 (IL-16), which acts as a messenger that instructs blood vessel cells to grow old before their time, according to the study.
Excess salt may trigger the immune system to release a molecule called interleukin-16, which acts as a messenger that instructs blood vessel cells to grow old before their time, according to the study. (iStock)
Once these cells age, they fail to produce nitric oxide, the essential gas that tells arteries to dilate and stay flexible.
To test whether this process could be reversed, the team turned to a class of experimental drugs known as senolytics.
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Using a cancer medication called navitoclax, which selectively clears out aged and dysfunctional cells, the researchers were able to restore nearly normal blood vessel function in the salt-fed mice, the release stated.
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By removing the decaying cells created by the high-salt diet, the drug allowed the remaining healthy tissue to maintain its elasticity and respond correctly to blood flow demands.
Excess salt may trigger the immune system into stopping the cells from dividing, the study suggests. (iStock)
The study did have some limitations. The transition from mouse models to human treatment remains a significant hurdle, the team cautioned.
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Senolytic drugs like navitoclax are still being studied for safety, and the team emphasized that previous trials have shown mixed results regarding their impact on artery plaque.
Additionally, the researchers have not yet confirmed whether the same IL-16 pathway is the primary driver of vascular aging in humans.
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