Korede Abdullah
World Health Organization, WHO, has reported that person died of bird flu in Mexico in the first confirmed case of a human infected with the H5N2 variant.
The The 59-year old resident of the State of Mexico was hospitalised in Mexico City and died the same day, the statement said.
According to the WHO statement, the man had died since April 24 after developing fever, shortness of breath, diarrhoea and nausea, but it had just been confirmed that he actually died of bird flu, the first of its kind.
It was also reported in the WHO statement that the victim had “no history of exposure to poultry or other animals” and multiple underlying medical conditions.
It was the “first laboratory-confirmed human case of infection with an influenza A (H5N2) virus reported globally”, the WHO added.
Mexican health authorities reported the confirmed case to the UN health body on May 23 after conducting laboratory tests.
The source of exposure to the virus was unknown, the WHO said, although cases of H5N2 have been reported in poultry in Mexico.
H5N2 cases were detected in a backyard poultry farm in Michoacan State in March, with other outbreaks identified in the State of Mexico, according to the UN health body.
““There is no risk of contagion for the population,” the statement said, adding that “all samples from identified contacts (of the patient) have been negative”. Authorities from the Mexican Ministry of Health said.
According to AFP, A different variant of bird flu, H5N1, has been spreading for weeks among dairy cow herds in the United States, with a small number of cases reported among humans. But none of the cases are human-to-human infections, with the disease instead jumping from cattle to people, authorities have said.
