In April, a person with pre-existing medical conditions in Mexico passed away from bird flu. Recently, the virus's H5N2 strain was found in Mexican poultry farms.
To Put It Briefly
• The H5N2 strain of the influenza A(H5) virus is responsible for the first human death case.
• A person in Mexico passed away after getting bird flu.
• Reports of the H5N2 strain in birds from Mexican farms have surfaced recently.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), a person who had previously experienced health issues and had previously contracted bird flu passed away in Mexico in April.
It's unclear where the virus was exposed. WHO reports that the 59-year-old patient passed away on April 24 after being admitted to a Mexico City hospital for treatment of a fever, dyspnea, diarrhea, nausea, and general discomfort.
A(H5N2) viruses have been found in poultry in Mexico, despite the fact that the source of the virus's exposure in this instance is presently unknown," the WHO stated in a statement.
Become well-versed in the H5N2 strain of bird flu.
A widespread outbreak of bird flu has been reported in farms across several nations, including the US, UK, France, Japan, and Australia. Up until now, multiple virus strains have been identified, with H5N1 being the most common among birds.
The virus, also referred to as avian influenza, typically doesn't harm people. Rarely, there have been fatal cases, though.
The majority of human illnesses from avian influenza viruses reported globally to date, including the most serious illnesses with high mortality, have been linked to the avian influenza A(H7N9) virus and highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) A(H5N1) and A(H5N6) viruses, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Birds that carry the virus transmit it through their feces, mucous membranes, and saliva.
Animal milk is one of the bodily fluids that can contain the virus infected with avian influenza viruses, as well as respiratory secretions, blood, and various organs.
Recently, the H5N2 strain was found in Mexican poultry farms. The strain belongs to the Influenzavirus A species as a subtype.
While they may not seem sick, birds infected with this strain may exhibit minor symptoms.
Different subtypes of this subtype have varying degrees of pathogenicity; outbreaks of the "high-path" H5N2 strain sometimes result in the culling of thousands of birds from poultry farms.
H5N2 symptoms resemble those of the H5N1 strain, but they are less severe. Shortness of breath, body aches, fever, and cough are typical symptoms of the strain.
According to the WHO, exposure to infected poultry or contaminated environments can result in infection and small clusters of human cases whenever avian influenza viruses are circulating in poultry.
As a result, occasional human cases are expected.
The current probability of such a spread is low because A(H5) viruses from previous events do not have the capacity for persistent human-to-human transmission, according to epidemiological and virological data.
Vaccines to protect against influenza A(H5) viruses do not exist. For "pandemic preparedness purposes," however, candidate vaccines to prevent this virus in humans have been developed.