Mexico City: A three-year-old girl has become Mexico’s first human fatality from H5N1 bird flu, dying early Tuesday of multiple organ failure, health officials said.
The girl from the northern state of Coahuila was diagnosed with the virus on April 1, but health secretary Eliud Aguirre said there were no other known cases of infection so far.
Cambodia has reported two deaths due to H5N1 this year, including that of a toddler in February who had slept and played near a chicken cage where about 15 birds died. The United States has reported one death, in January.
Infections in humans can cause severe disease with a high mortality rate, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
It says human cases detected so far are mostly linked to people who had close contact with infected birds and other animals, or contaminated environments.
“This virus does not appear to transmit easily from person to person, and sustained human-to-human transmission has not been reported,” states the WHO website.
Scientists have raised fears, however, that if a person becomes infected with both bird flu and seasonal flu, the H5N1 virus could mutate into a strain that can be transferred from human to human, potentially triggering a pandemic.
Mexico’s Ministry of Health said in a statement it had traced 38 people who had contact with the deceased girl, and all tested negative for the virus.
These included family members and health personnel, added Aguirre.
Last year, the UN’s health body warned that patchy surveillance was hampering its ability to manage the risk posed to humans by the H5N1 strain.
The WHO called on all countries to step up surveillance and reporting in animals and humans, and for nations to share samples and genetic sequences.
In the United States, the spread of bird flu has caused alarm due to cases of severe illness in humans and troubling instances of infections in domestic cats and dairy cattle.
It has also significantly impacted the poultry industry.
Yet Mexico’s northern neighbor has all but cut communications with the WHO since President Donald Trump took office in January and signed an executive order for the United States to withdraw from the global body.
