The World Health Organization (WHO) reported this Wednesday the first death from AH5N2 bird flu in the world, which would have been detected in a laboratory in Mexico.
According to the information, the victim would be a 59-year-old man who died on April 24 and the source of exposure to the virus that has been reported in poultry in Mexico is unknown.
“This is the first laboratory-confirmed human case of influenza A(H5N2) virus infection reported globally, and the first A(H5) virus infection reported in a person in Mexico,” the WHO warned in its website.
According to the agency, the man, who lived in the central State of Mexico, had no history of exposure to poultry or other animals.
He explained that, on May 23, Mexican health authorities informed the WHO about the confirmed case of human infection with the avian influenza A(H5N2) virus.
According to family members, the patient had already been bedridden due to other health conditions that afflicted him, but on May 17 he developed fever, difficulty breathing, diarrhea, nausea and general malaise.
On April 24, he sought medical attention and entered the ‘Ismael Cosío Villegas’ National Institute of Respiratory Diseases (INER), where “he died that same day due to complications from his condition.”
The case is reported after the H5N1 bird flu virus has spread in recent weeks in dairy cows in the United States, a country neighboring Mexico.
And although three human cases have been recorded in that country so far this year, US health authorities have clarified that none of the infections are related to the outbreak of the virus in cows.
The virus, identified as H5N1, is a subtype of avian flu that is highly contagious among birds.
In late March, it emerged that dairy cows in Texas and Kansas were infected with bird flu, and days later, USDA officials confirmed cases within a herd of Michigan dairy cows that They had recently been in contact with specimens from Texas.
In Mexico, on April 5, the National Agri-Food Health, Safety and Quality Service (Senasica) declared the country a zone free of AH5N2 avian flu and said that the virus had been absent for more than 25 years, since the last case corroborated in commercial production dated June 5, 1995.
The Mexican authorities have not reported so far on the case reported by the WHO.
EFE.
I.G.
