January marks the start of flu season and this particular season has many on their toes as cases of the bird flu emerge.

A day after the United States reported its first human death from avian flu, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) insisted on Tuesday that the risk to the wider population remains "low".

We’re monitoring the situation very, very closely. We’ve never seen this many infections of non-bird species as we have in the U.S.," Johns Hopkins virologist Andrew Pekosz said.