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First death in the world due to H5N2 bird flu, source of infection unknown

First death in the world due to H5N2 bird flu, source of infection unknown

Jun 06, 2024

Mexico City [Mexico], June 6: A patient infected with H5N2 bird flu living in Mexico state died on April 24 at a hospital in Mexico City after experiencing fever, difficulty breathing, diarrhea and nausea. This person had no history of contact with chickens or other animals but had many underlying illnesses and had to be hospitalized for 3 weeks for other reasons before acute symptoms appeared, AFP reported on June 5. WHO said.
Mexican authorities notified WHO on May 23 when the patient was admitted to a Mexico City hospital.
Mexico's Health Ministry said the 59-year-old patient has chronic kidney disease and type 2 diabetes. This puts the patient at risk of becoming more seriously ill with the flu, even if it is seasonal flu, flu expert Andrew said. Pekosz at Johns Hopkins University (USA) explains.
However, it is unclear how the patient became infected with bird flu , although cases of H5N2 flu have appeared in poultry in Mexico . The WHO said H5N2 cases affected poultry in Michoacan state in March and other outbreaks were detected in Mexico state but could not confirm a link between the poultry and human cases. WHO assesses the risk to humans as still low.
The Mexican Ministry of Health said there was no evidence of person-to-person transmission in this death and all people in contact with the patient were tested and tested negative.
This is the first human case of influenza A (H5N2) infection confirmed globally. Scientists say the case is unrelated to the H5N1 outbreak in the US , which has so far infected three people working on farms. Authorities say there have been no cases of human-to-human transmission and that the pathogen only jumped from livestock to humans.
Source: Thanh Nien Newspaper