A Yakima County resident has died of bird flu after exposure to infected dairy cattle, the first bird flu death reported in the United States in 2026. The Yakima Health District said the person was hospitalized with severe illness and died on Sunday, November 1. The person had underlying health conditions, and the district did not name the patient or release the person’s age or gender, citing respect for the family.
The bird flu death is the third in the United States tied to bird flu since February 2024, when the virus jumped into dairy cattle for the first time. Health officials say the risk to the general public remains low, and no human to human transmission of bird flu has been documented in the United States. The people at greatest risk are dairy workers and others in close contact with infected animals.
How the bird flu death unfolded
The Yakima Health District reported on October 31 that a person who had come into contact with infected cattle was hospitalized with a severe case of bird flu. The next day, the district reported that the person had died. It was the first human case in the county reported in nearly a year to end in death, and it followed a mild case in a dairy worker identified on October 15.
A third human case was reported over the same weekend, also in a resident exposed to infected cattle at a Yakima County dairy. That person has mild symptoms and has not needed hospital care. Health officials are monitoring close contacts of the person who died for symptoms, a routine step when a severe case is confirmed.
The contrast between the three cases shows why health officials track each infection closely. Two people in the same county had mild illness after the same kind of exposure, while a third developed severe illness and died. The bird flu death involved a person with underlying health conditions, which officials cited as a factor that can turn an infection into a severe one.
What the bird flu death means for dairy herds
Washington confirmed its first infections in dairy cattle on October 8, at two Yakima County dairies found through milk testing by the Washington State Department of Agriculture and the United States Department of Agriculture. The outbreak has since spread to 33 herds in Yakima County and one herd in Benton County, reported on October 26 by the Benton Franklin Health District.
Dr. Dave Atteberry, the public health officer for the Yakima Health District, said the dairies with infected cows were found in early October through milk testing. He said avian influenza can cause severe illness, particularly in people who have underlying health conditions. The CDC has recorded more than 70 human cases in the United States since 2024, most of them in dairy and poultry workers.
What officials say about the bird flu death
The CDC said the person who died was infected with H5N1, and the agency analyzed the genetic sequence of the virus and found no changes that would make it spread more easily or cause more severe illness. That finding matters because a change in the virus would raise the level of concern beyond the current assessment, which keeps the public risk low.
State health officials said they have reported all three Yakima County cases to the CDC, though the agency had not yet included them on its bird flu dashboard when the bird flu death was announced. Health officials also caution against drinking unpasteurized milk and eating dairy products from cows or goats that have not been pasteurized, since those products can carry the virus. Pasteurized milk remains safe, officials said.
Dairy workers in affected counties are being urged to watch for fever, cough, sore throat, eye redness and other flu like symptoms after contact with infected animals, and to seek testing promptly if symptoms appear. No further bird flu death has been reported in the county since November 1. The bird flu death has not changed the public risk assessment, which remains low, but it has renewed attention on protective gear, hand washing and testing for workers on farms where herds have tested positive.