Missouri patient contracts bird flu despite no known contact with animals

A hospitalized patient in Missouri was infected with bird flu despite having had no known contact with dairy cows or other animals associated with an ongoing outbreak, health officials said Friday.

This is the 14th person in the U.S. sickened with bird flu since March, when the virus was detected in cows, after infecting wild birds and mammals worldwide. One other person was infected in 2022.

However, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a statement that it was the first of those 14 "without a known occupational exposure to sick or infected animals."