The World Health Organization ( WHO ) announced on Wednesday that a 59-year-old resident of the State of Mexico had died from bird flu in the first confirmed case of a human being carrying the H5N2 variant. The person passed ahead on April 24 after experiencing fever, shortness of breath, constipation, and nausea. Despite having no history of contact to chickens or other animals, the person had several underlying medical conditions, including severe liver disease and type 2 diabetes, according to a speech from Mexico’s health department.
The person, who had been bedridden for three days before developing serious symptoms, was taken to a hospital in Mexico City and died the same day. This case is the first avian H5 virus to be reported in a person in Mexico and the first laboratory-confirmed human infection with an influenza A ( H5N2 ) virus worldwide.
” Although the source of exposure to the virus in this case is currently unknown, A ( H5N2 ) viruses have been reported in poultry in Mexico”, the WHO said. Mexican health officials conducted laboratory testing and gave the event a report to the UN health organization on May 23.
In a garden poultry farm in the state of Michoacan status in March, H5N2 cases were discovered, along with other occurrences in the state of Mexico. Nevertheless, establishing a link between the individual situation and the chicken attacks has been challenging. The WHO classifies the danger as “low” for the general population.
The Mexican health department emphasized that the population has no chance of getting sick, noting that all of the samples taken from the patient’s emails have been bad. Officials are closely monitoring the farms close to the victim’s home and have set up a continuous monitoring system to look for other instances of animals in the area.
Andrew Pekosz, an influenza expert at Johns Hopkins University, highlighted the complexity of the situation, saying,” How this individual got infected is a big question mark that at least this initial report does n’t really address thoroughly”.
The WHO and Hispanic health officials are still looking into the origin of the illness. Bird flu has been known to infect several animals, including seals, possums, bears, and cattle, mainly due to contact with infected animals. Researchers remain on the lookout for changes in the malware that may encourage its multiply among people.
In the United States, a unique variation of animal virus, H5N1, has been spreading among cheese cow herds, with a small number of individual instances reported. But, none of these cases involved individual- to- individual transmission.
Australia also reported its second human case of the H5N1 virus in May, with no signs of transfer, and it also reported more H7 bird virus cases in Victoria state from poultry farms.
Pekosz continued,” H5 viruses have consistently demonstrated a propensity to infiltrate mammals more than any other avian flu disease.” Therefore, it is still ringing the alarm bell that we should be very watchful of these infections because each overflow offers the virus the chance to try to collect the mutations that improve its ability to infect humans.
( With inputs from agencies )
