Vietnam’s health ministry has confirmed that a 21-year-old college student in Khanh Hoa province has died from an H5N1 avian flu infection. The patient, who was initially reported to have an H5 infection last week, had reportedly trapped wild birds near his home before and after the Lunar New Year holiday. However, no sick or dead poultry were reported near the family’s home. The health ministry’s statement revealed that no other cases have been detected among the patient’s contacts.

There are lingering questions about the specific H5N1 clade involved in the man’s infection. The older clade (2.3.2.1c) has been linked to a series of illnesses in Cambodia, while the newer clade (2.3.4.4b) has also infected people in rare instances. Vietnam had not reported an H5N1 case since 2014, and the country continues to report sporadic H5N1 detections in poultry, with six avian flu outbreaks reported across six provinces, including Khanh Hoa.

In other news, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted emergency use authorization (EUA) for Invivyd’s monoclonal antibody, pemivibart (Pemgarda), for the prevention of COVID-19 in immunocompromised patients. The drug, authorized for pre-exposure prophylaxis in adolescents and adults with moderate-to-severe immunocompromise, is given as a 4,500-milligram intravenous infusion. Clinical trials have suggested that pemivibart has neutralizing activity against SARS-CoV-2 variants, including JN.1, which is currently dominant in the United States and abroad.