The H5N2 avian flu’s first fatal human case has been found

GENEVA: The first human case of the H5N2 strain of bird flu to be verified worldwide occurred on Wednesday, according to the World Health Organisation. The victim was from Mexico.

The patient had “no history of exposure to poultry or other animals” and “multiple underlying medical conditions,” according to the WHO. The patient passed away on April 24 after experiencing fever, shortness of breath, diarrhoea, and nausea.

On May 23, after a 59-year-old patient was admitted to a hospital in Mexico City, Mexican health authorities notified the UN health organisation of the confirmed instance of viral infection in humans.

The case was the “first laboratory-confirmed human case of infection with an influenza A(H5N2) virus reported globally,” according to the World Health Organisation.

 The WHO stated that although cases of H5N2 have been identified in the nation’s poultry, the source of the virus’s exposure was unknown.

The UN health organisation reports that outbreaks of H5N2 afflicted poultry in the state of Michoacan in March, and that outbreaks were also found in the State of Mexico.

However, it stated that there was currently no way to connect the human case to the chicken infections, deeming the danger to humans to be “low”.

H5N1, a distinct strain of bird flu, has been circulating in dairy cow herds in the US for several weeks, with a few human cases documented.

However, authorities have stated that the disease is not spreading from person to person in any of the cases; rather, it is primarily affecting livestock. – AFP