With reports of the first human death from bird flu in the US, some Americans are feeling an uncomfortable flashback to the early days of Covid-19, when infectious disease experts were talking about a new virus that was sending people to the hospital with respiratory infections.

Medical experts advise that people should get a vaccine for the bird flu when it becomes commercially available. One doctor said the most at-risk patients should be first.

Authorities in the United States have recorded the country's first human death from bird flu. The patient, aged over 65 and with underlying medical conditions, was hospitalised with the virus on December 18.