A case of bird flu claimed the life of an individual in Mexico, marking the first confirmed instance of a person infected with the H5N2 variant, the World Health Organization revealed on Wednesday.
The deceased, a 59-year-old, passed away on April 24, exhibiting symptoms like fever, shortness of breath, diarrhea, and nausea. According to the WHO, the individual had “no history of exposure to poultry or other animals” and was battling “multiple underlying medical conditions”.
Residing in the State of Mexico, the individual was admitted to a hospital in Mexico City and succumbed on the same day, the WHO disclosed.
This incident represents the “first laboratory-confirmed human case of infection with an influenza A(H5N2) virus reported globally,” the WHO emphasized.
Mexican health authorities communicated the verified case to the UN health body on May 23 following laboratory examinations.
The WHO stated that the source of exposure to the virus remained unidentified, despite H5N2 cases being reported in poultry in Mexico.
Cases of H5N2 were identified in a backyard poultry farm in Michoacan state back in March, with additional outbreaks identified in the State of Mexico, as outlined by the UN health body.
Nevertheless, the WHO noted that establishing a direct link between the human case and the poultry infections had proven challenging, assessing the risk to individuals as “low”.
Mexico’s health ministry reported that the deceased individual was “a 59-year-old man with a history of chronic kidney disease, type 2 diabetes, (and) long-standing systemic arterial hypertension”.
Reassuring the population, the ministry emphasized, “There is no risk of contagion for the population,” confirming that “all samples from identified contacts (of the patient) have been negative”.
Authorities are closely monitoring farms near the victim’s residence and have implemented a permanent surveillance system to detect potential cases in wildlife within the vicinity, the ministry added.
In a separate development, a distinct strain of bird flu, H5N1, has been circulating among dairy cow herds in the United States for weeks, with a few cases reported among humans.
However, authorities have clarified that none of these cases involved human-to-human transmissions, with the disease originating from cattle and affecting people indirectly.
