The World Health Organization confirmed on Wednesday the first-ever fatal case of a subtype of bird flu in Mexico.
It is the first laboratory-confirmed human case of the H5N2 strain of bird flu, or avian influenza, reported globally and the first-ever reported case in Mexico.
This strain is different than the bird flu strain that is currently circulating in livestock in the United States and has infected three dairy workers in the U.S.
The Mexico patient was a 59-year-old resident with no history of exposure to poultry or other animals, according to the WHO.
On April 17, the patient developed fever, nausea, diarrhea, shortness of breath and general malaise. They were hospitalized on April 24 at the National Institute of Respiratory Diseases in Mexico City and died the same day.
The patient’s relatives said the person had underlying conditions and they had been bedridden for three weeks for other reasons prior to contracting bird flu, the WHO said. On Wednesday night, Mexico’s Health Ministry said the patient had “a history of chronic kidney disease, type 2 diabetes [and] long-term systemic arterial hypertension.”
Test results eventually revealed the patient was infected with bird flu subtype H5N2, which has never been documented in humans before.
No further cases have been documented during health officials’ investigation, according to the WHO. Of the 17 people the patient came into contact with at the hospital, one person reported a runny nose in late April. Samples taken from the contacts tested negative for flu and COVID-19.
Twelve additional people the patient came into contact with — seven with symptoms and five without — were identified near the patient’s residence.
