Mexico says bird flu patient died of chronic disease, not virus

[June 08, 2024]  MEXICO CITY (Reuters) -A man who contracted bird flu in Mexico died due to chronic diseases and not the virus, Mexico's health ministry said on Friday.

Earlier this week, the World Health Organization reported the first laboratory-confirmed human case of infection with A(H5N2) avian influenza in Mexico.

In a Friday press conference in Geneva, WHO spokesman Christian Lindmeier described the man's case as a "multifactorial death" and noted that experts were still investigating whether he was infected by someone or by contact with animals.

Mexico's health ministry on Friday stressed that the 59-year-old man's death was due to chronic conditions that led to septic shock, and was not attributed to the virus.

"The diseases were long-term and caused conditions that led to the failure of several organs," the ministry said, citing the findings by a team of experts.

The man had chronic kidney disease, diabetes and arterial hypertension over the past 14 years, according to health officials.

The ministry added that there is no evidence of person-to-person transmission of the A(H5N2) virus stemming from the case.

A person walks past Mexico's National Institute of Respiratory Diseases after the World Health Organization said a person's death was caused by the first laboratory-confirmed human case of infection with the A(H5N2) subtype of bird flu reported globally, and the first human infection with the H5 strain of the virus reported in Mexico, in Mexico City, Mexico June 5, 2024. REUTERS/Daniel Becerril

Scientists have been on alert for changes in the virus that could signal it is adapting to spread more easily among humans.

(Reporting by Ana Isabel Martinez; additonal reporting by Gabrielle Terault-Farber in Geneva; Writing by Cassandra Garrison; Editing by David Alire Garcia and Bill Berkrot)

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