First human death from bird flu strain reported in Mexico

( NewsNation ) — A 59-year-old resident of Mexico has been confirmed as the first human victim to die from bird flu , the World Health Organization reported Wednesday.

The death comes after Mexican health officials previously confirmed a case of the H5N2 bird flu strain in the patient, who had been hospitalized in Mexico City. The case is the first among humans involving this strain of the illness, which is different from the bird flu cases being linked to cattle in the United States.

The person, who has not been publicly identified, had multiple underlying medical conditions. The victim’s relatives said that the person had been bedridden for other reasons before acute symptoms linked to the bird flu set in, health officials reported.

Just one week before the patient’s death April 24, the patient was experiencing shortness of breath, diarrhea, nausea, and general malaise.

The World Health Organization said other cases involving the H5N2 strain have been found in poultry in Mexico, though the deceased had no history of exposure to poultry or other animals.

The source of exposure in this case is “currently unknown,” health officials said. The World Health Organization, however, still believes the risk to the general public is “low.”

The bird flu strain linked to cattle in the U.S. — H5N1 — has affected nearly 70 herds across the country. It’s also associated with three confirmed non-fatal cases of bird flu in the human population , data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show.

Flu viruses that cause human disease circulate at very low levels during the summer months, so the presence of high levels of influenza A in wastewater during this time could be a “reliable indicator that something unusual is going on in a particular area,” news outlet STAT reported.

As of May 24, data from 689 of the agency’s wastewater sampling sites showed that an influenza A virus had been detected at higher-than-average levels in more than 280 sites, including some in Illinois and Alaska.

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