Leader Online Desk: The world's first victim of the H5N2 strain of bird flu has been reported in Mexico. The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday (Dec 6) that a person in Mexico has died from bird flu, called H5N2, which has never been found in humans before.
It is not yet clear how the person became infected. However, WHO said that H5N2 has been reported in poultry in Mexico. Mexican health officials notified the UN Health Organization on May 23 that the patient concerned had been infected with the H5N2 virus. The 59-year-old patient was then admitted to a hospital in Mexico City. There are no reports of the deceased being exposed to poultry or other animals. According to his family, he was admitted to the hospital after developing fever, diarrhea and difficulty in breathing. He died on April 24 during treatment at the hospital. Initial tests showed an unknown strain of the flu, which was confirmed as H5N2 after laboratory testing. WHO says this is the first confirmed human case of influenza H5N2 virus infection reported globally.
Another strain of bird flu, H5N1, has been circulating among dairy cows in the United States for the past few weeks. Some of these cases have been reported in humans. But officials said none of the cases involved human-to-human transmission, with the disease spreading from cattle to humans.
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