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Mexico Death Linked to Bird Flu Strain That’s New in Humans
- Resident of central Mexico died a week after fever began
- Person had no known exposure to poultry, infected animals
By Riley Griffin and Jessica Nix
June 5, 2024 at 7:50 PM UTC
Updated on
June 5, 2024 at 10:10 PM UTC
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A person in Mexico died after contracting a strain of bird flu that hasn’t been confirmed in humans before, the World Health Organization said Wednesday.
The virus was detected in a 59-year-old who had been hospitalized in Mexico City. The person died one week after developing a fever, shortness of breath and diarrhea. It’s the first lab-confirmed case of a person contracting a form of bird flu known as H5N2, the WHO said in a statement, raising questions about a strain that has largely been under the radar. The current bird flu outbreak in US dairy cows is being driven by a different strain — H5N1.
The patient, who lived in central Mexico, had no history of exposure to poultry or other animals and had underlying medical conditions. The Mexican government doesn’t know where the patient was exposed to the virus, though the strain of avian influenza has been reported in poultry in the Mexican state where the person lived.
The current risk posed by H5N2 to the general public is low, according to the WHO, which said no further cases were reported after an investigation. While the deceased patient in Mexico marks the first laboratory-confirmed case of H5N2 in humans, researchers have identified people with antibodies that could signal prior infections.
Mexican authorities reported the fatal human case to the WHO on May 23 after confirming the presence of the virus. The patient who died had been bedridden for three weeks “for other reasons” prior to the onset of acute symptoms, the WHO said, citing the patient’s relatives.
Katrine Wallace, an epidemiologist with the University of Illinois Chicago School of Public Health, said that H5N2 poses a low risk to public health because it hasn’t shown an ability to be transmitted between humans. To that end, it’s concerning that the patient isn’t known to have had exposure to animals which are the most likely source of disease, she added.
Wallace said more surveillance is needed to fill in the gaps of information. “It’s so crazy that we don’t know where this is coming from,” she said.
Mexico’s health ministry and US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
In the US, the H5N1 outbreak in cattle continues to expand its geographic reach. On Wednesday, Iowa announced it had identified infected cows, bringing the total number of states that have detected bird flu in herds to 10. So far this year, three US-based farmworkers have tested positive for bird flu — one in Texas and two in Michigan. They had symptoms of eye irritation and one had a cough. There have been no fatal human cases associated with the US H5N1 outbreak.
— With assistance from Madison Muller and Maya Averbuch
(Updates starting in the fourth paragraph)
