The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a health alert this week to notify doctors, state health departments and the public of avian influenza in a person who had contact with dairy cows in Texas.

According to the agency, a farmworker on a commercial dairy farm in Texas developed conjunctivitis last week, and subsequently tested positive for bird flu.

The positive case comes after milk from dairy cows in Texas and Kansas tested positive for the disease.

In March 2023, the World Health Organisation (WHO) announced that a 56-year-old Chinese woman has become the first person to die from Avian Influenza A (H3N8).

“On 27 March 2023, the National Health Commission of the People’s Republic of China notified WHO of one confirmed case of human infection with an avian influenza A(H3N8) virus,” the announcement reads. “The patient was a 56-year-old female from Guangdong province with an onset of illness on 22 February 2023. She was hospitalized for severe pneumonia on 3 March 2023 and subsequently died on 16 March 2023.”

Guangdong province was among the earliest areas to report COVID-19 cases outside of Wuhan.

The WHO announcement also indicated the woman suffered from “multiple underlying conditions” as well as a “history of exposure to live poultry before the onset of the disease, and a history of wild bird presence around her home.”