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Data

H5N1 influenza: monthly reported cases

About this data

H5N1 influenza: monthly reported cases
Monthly number of human cases with highly pathogenic avian influenza A/H5N1.
Source
WHO, Global Influenza Programme (2025) – with minor processing by Our World in Data
Last updated
December 2, 2025
Unit
cases

Sources and processing

This data is based on the following sources

WHO, Global Influenza Programme – Human Cases with Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza A/H5N1

This dataset contains all human infections with HPAI A(H5N1​​​​​) bird flu virus reported to the World Health Organization (WHO), since the first human cases in 1997.

A(H5N1​​​​​) bird flu viruses first emerged in southern China in 1996. Those viruses caused large poultry outbreaks in Hong Kong in 1997, which resulted in 18 human infections. The 1997 bird outbreak was controlled, but the A(H5N1​​​​​) bird flu viruses were not eradicated in birds and re-surfaced in 2003 to spread widely in birds throughout Asia, and later in Africa, Europe, and the Middle East, causing poultry outbreaks and sporadic human infections. Since 2003, more than 23 countries have reported more than 880 sporadic human infections with A(H5N1​​​​​) bird flu viruses to WHO.

A(H5N1​​​​​) bird flu viruses that are currently circulating in wild birds and poultry in much of the world are genetically different from earlier versions of the virus and emerged to become the predominant subtype of HPAI H5 in the fall of 2021. These viruses have caused sporadic wild bird infections and poultry outbreaks in many countries, including the United States, with spillover to mammals in some countries. In contrast to previous A(H5N1​​​​​) viruses, which still circulate to a lesser extent in several countries, at this time, a small number of sporadic human cases with current A(H5N1​​​​​) bird flu viruses have been reported globally. However, illness in humans from all bird flu virus infections has ranged in severity from no symptoms or mild illness to severe disease that resulted in death.

Retrieved on
December 2, 2025
Retrieved from
https://www.cdc.gov/bird-flu/php/avian-flu-summary/chart-epi-curve-ah5n1.html
Citation
This is the citation of the original data obtained from the source, prior to any processing or adaptation by Our World in Data. To cite data downloaded from this page, please use the suggested citation given in Reuse This Work below.
Human Cases with Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza A/H5N1. World Health Organization, Global Influenza Programme; 2024. Licence: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO. Retrieved from CDC May 23, 2024.

This dataset contains all human infections with HPAI A(H5N1​​​​​) bird flu virus reported to the World Health Organization (WHO), since the first human cases in 1997.

A(H5N1​​​​​) bird flu viruses first emerged in southern China in 1996. Those viruses caused large poultry outbreaks in Hong Kong in 1997, which resulted in 18 human infections. The 1997 bird outbreak was controlled, but the A(H5N1​​​​​) bird flu viruses were not eradicated in birds and re-surfaced in 2003 to spread widely in birds throughout Asia, and later in Africa, Europe, and the Middle East, causing poultry outbreaks and sporadic human infections. Since 2003, more than 23 countries have reported more than 880 sporadic human infections with A(H5N1​​​​​) bird flu viruses to WHO.

A(H5N1​​​​​) bird flu viruses that are currently circulating in wild birds and poultry in much of the world are genetically different from earlier versions of the virus and emerged to become the predominant subtype of HPAI H5 in the fall of 2021. These viruses have caused sporadic wild bird infections and poultry outbreaks in many countries, including the United States, with spillover to mammals in some countries. In contrast to previous A(H5N1​​​​​) viruses, which still circulate to a lesser extent in several countries, at this time, a small number of sporadic human cases with current A(H5N1​​​​​) bird flu viruses have been reported globally. However, illness in humans from all bird flu virus infections has ranged in severity from no symptoms or mild illness to severe disease that resulted in death.

Retrieved on
December 2, 2025
Retrieved from
https://www.cdc.gov/bird-flu/php/avian-flu-summary/chart-epi-curve-ah5n1.html
Citation
This is the citation of the original data obtained from the source, prior to any processing or adaptation by Our World in Data. To cite data downloaded from this page, please use the suggested citation given in Reuse This Work below.
Human Cases with Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza A/H5N1. World Health Organization, Global Influenza Programme; 2024. Licence: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO. Retrieved from CDC May 23, 2024.

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Citations

How to cite this page

To cite this page overall, including any descriptions, FAQs or explanations of the data authored by Our World in Data, please use the following citation:

“Data Page: H5N1 influenza: monthly reported cases”. Our World in Data (2026). Data adapted from WHO, Global Influenza Programme. Retrieved from https://archive.ourworldindata.org/20260326-190711/grapher/h5n1-flu-reported-cases.html [online resource] (archived on March 26, 2026).

How to cite this data

In-line citationIf you have limited space (e.g. in data visualizations), you can use this abbreviated in-line citation:

WHO, Global Influenza Programme (2025) – with minor processing by Our World in Data

Full citation

WHO, Global Influenza Programme (2025) – with minor processing by Our World in Data. “H5N1 influenza: monthly reported cases” [dataset]. WHO, Global Influenza Programme, “Human Cases with Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza A/H5N1” [original data]. Retrieved April 1, 2026 from https://archive.ourworldindata.org/20260326-190711/grapher/h5n1-flu-reported-cases.html (archived on March 26, 2026).

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Data API

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Data URL (CSV format)
https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/h5n1-flu-reported-cases.csv?v=1&csvType=full&useColumnShortNames=false
Metadata URL (JSON format)
https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/h5n1-flu-reported-cases.metadata.json?v=1&csvType=full&useColumnShortNames=false

Code examples

Examples of how to load this data into different data analysis tools.

Excel / Google Sheets
=IMPORTDATA("https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/h5n1-flu-reported-cases.csv?v=1&csvType=full&useColumnShortNames=false")
Python with Pandas
import pandas as pd
import requests

# Fetch the data.
df = pd.read_csv("https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/h5n1-flu-reported-cases.csv?v=1&csvType=full&useColumnShortNames=false", storage_options = {'User-Agent': 'Our World In Data data fetch/1.0'})

# Fetch the metadata
metadata = requests.get("https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/h5n1-flu-reported-cases.metadata.json?v=1&csvType=full&useColumnShortNames=false").json()
R
library(jsonlite)

# Fetch the data
df <- read.csv("https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/h5n1-flu-reported-cases.csv?v=1&csvType=full&useColumnShortNames=false")

# Fetch the metadata
metadata <- fromJSON("https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/h5n1-flu-reported-cases.metadata.json?v=1&csvType=full&useColumnShortNames=false")
Stata
import delimited "https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/h5n1-flu-reported-cases.csv?v=1&csvType=full&useColumnShortNames=false", encoding("utf-8") clear