WHO confirms first human case of bird flu in Australia
The World Health Organization (WHO) has confirmed first case of bird flu in humans. Australian authorities already warned about this fact last month after symptoms were discovered. in a two year old girl who traveled around India.
In a statement, WHO said that infection with the H5N1 virus, which causes avian influenza, This “probably” happened in India., where the little girl traveled from February 12 to 28. On March 1, she returned to Melbourne, Australia, where she was hospitalized the next day with flu-like symptoms.
The girl was hospitalized in intensive care on March 4. After two and a half weeks in the hospital he managed to recover. The WHO indicated that on February 25, the girl felt unwell and three days later was taken to the doctor with fever, cough and vomiting, for which she was prescribed paracetamol.
The only place in India he visited was Calcuttawhere the contamination is likely to have occurred and the case has not been reported to Australian Customs, although no family members or close contacts developed symptoms.
The Victorian State Department of Health in Australia reported the case on May 22, explaining that the girl was already healthy and the likelihood of transmission between people was “very low.”
Infection with this subtype of virus “it has a great impact on health”, the organization warned, although the likelihood of infection between people is “very low.” Influenza virus of animal origin, It is usually transmitted between animalsalthough humans can also become infected, as has already been the case.
“Infections in humans are mainly caused by direct contact with infected animals or contaminated environments. Depending on the original host, influenza A viruses can be classified as avian influenza, swine influenza, or other types of animal influenza viruses,” the organization said.
First human death from bird flu
This announcement came just hours after the WHO also announced: world’s first human death from H5N2 bird flu, discovered in a laboratory in Mexico at the end of May. The victim died on April 24 and is still source of exposure unknown this was the cause of the infection.
However, soon after this, a representative of the organization clarified that death was not related to influenza, but because of “multifactorial” reasons for other ailments and diseases. “It is important to point out that the death was multifactorial and not caused by the H5N2 virus.”
The Mexican government, for its part, accused WHO of spreading ‘pretty bad’ statement regarding the cause of death of the infected patient and clarified that it was due to complications caused by diabetes and kidney failure, and not due to the AH5N2 virus.
The victim, according to WHO, will be a man from the state of Mexico who died while receiving care at the National Institute of Respiratory Diseases (INER) in southern Mexico City. after several days of fever, difficulty breathing, diarrhea, nausea and general malaise..
“In this case, it could be an epidemiological warning, in the case of actions that are taken against workers caring for and working with birds, (but) this patient had none of those, he came from the state of Mexico due to those manifestations of a different type,” said the Minister of Health.
He also noted that so far “There is no evidence of human-to-human transmission of the virus.”and that the patient has “no family contacts” or people in his close circle that could explain the infection.