India probes its first human death from bird flu

Eleven-year-old boy’s death highlights new risk for world’s second-most populous nation battling the COVID pandemic.

India is investigating its first documented human death from bird flu after an 11-year-old boy succumbed to the disease earlier this month, says the health ministry. The boy was admitted to New Delhi’s premier All India Institute of Medical Sciences on July 2. He died on Tuesday after a multiorgan failure, a government statement said late on Wednesday. Health workers treating the patient and the boy’s family have been kept in isolation, and authorities have launched contact tracing, the statement said.