This is “Avian Flu Watch: Global H5N1 Tracker.”
Today we’re taking a data‑driven look at how H5N1 bird flu is moving across the globe, what the numbers show, and what they mean for travel and public health.
According to the World Health Organization and CDC data compiled by Our World in Data, since 2003 more than 890 human H5N1 infections have been confirmed worldwide, with nearly half of those cases historically resulting in death. WHO reports that between January and August 2025 alone, 26 human H5N1 infections were detected across several countries.
Our fictional composite tracker, built from WHO, CDC, FAO and national reports, shows about 28,000 confirmed animal and human H5N1 infections globally, with 43 recent reported human fatalities. FAO’s late‑2025 situation update notes more than 2,000 H5N1 outbreaks in animals in just a few months, spanning 40‑plus countries, underscoring how deeply the virus is entrenched in birds and mammals.
Geographically, current hotspots cluster in three bands. In the Americas, the United States remains a focal point: CDC and WHO describe 71 human H5 infections since early 2024, mostly linked to poultry and dairy cattle, with two deaths and no sustained human‑to‑human transmission. Latin American countries such as Bolivia and Guatemala have active animal outbreaks, according to national veterinary reports collated by Hong Kong’s Centre for Health Protection. In Europe, recent H5N1 activity has been reported in France, Germany, Italy, Hungary, Sweden and the United Kingdom, with repeated poultry outbreaks. Across Asia, Viet Nam, Japan, Cambodia and Korea continue to report poultry and wild‑bird cases, and Cambodia documented the most recent human case in November 2025.
If you visualize the global trend line, imagine a steep rise beginning around 2021 as H5N1 spread across wild birds, then a plateau and slight decline in late 2025 as some control measures took hold. Our composite tracker shows a negative short‑term growth rate in new detected infections, suggesting that daily case counts are lower than at the peak, but still far above pre‑2020 baselines. Compared with five years ago, the number of affected countries is higher, and the virus is present in more mammal species, including dairy cattle in the United States.
Cross‑border transmission remains driven largely by migratory birds and trade in poultry products. FAO traces multi‑country clusters along major flyways, with viruses detected in wild geese, gulls and shorebirds that move between continents. Science Focus reports that more than 180 million poultry have been infected in the US alone, and over 1,000 dairy farms have reported outbreaks, illustrating how once H5N1 enters an agricultural system, it can jump repeatedly between flocks, herds and occasionally humans.
There have been notable containment successes: rapid culling, farm lockdowns and vaccination campaigns in some European and Asian countries have sharply reduced local outbreaks within weeks. At the same time, delayed reporting, gaps in wildlife surveillance and dense poultry production have fueled failures, allowing the virus to become endemic in some wild bird populations.
Emerging variants of concern include H5N1 lineages adapted to mammals and the first documented human infection with H5N5 in the United States in November 2025, as reported by WHO. Infectious disease experts writing in The Conversation and Gavi’s VaccinesWork warn that scientists are watching closely for any genetic changes that allow efficient human‑to‑human transmission. Current seasonal flu vaccines are unlikely to protect against H5N1, but several targeted vaccines, including mRNA candidates, are in early‑stage trials.
For travelers, CDC and WHO currently assess overall public risk as low, but recommend avoiding direct contact with sick or dead birds, staying away from live bird markets, and steering clear of raw or undercooked poultry and eggs, especially in known hotspot regions. Agricultural and wildlife workers should use appropriate protective equipment, and anyone with flu‑like symptoms after animal exposure should seek testing.
Thanks for tuning in to “Avian Flu Watch: Global H5N1 Tracker.” Come back next week for more data‑focused updates on evolving health threats. This has been a Quiet Please production, and for me, check out QuietPlease.ai.
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