The damage to those commercial industries has been severe. By the CDC’s accounting, bird flu has struck down nearly 131 million poultry and been found in 919 dairy herds across the country. The agency said there have been 66 confirmed human cases in the U.S. since last year, almost all of them people who worked on farms with infected cows or birds.

The patient, who was older than 65 and had underlying medical conditions, was hospitalized weeks ago in critical condition with severe respiratory illness.