The first fatal case of H5N2 bird flu worldwide has been confirmed in Mexico, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced yesterday.

“This is the first laboratory-confirmed case of the influenza virus A(H5N2)” in a human, said the organization, part of the UN system, in the epidemiological bulletin it published.

The H5N2 strain is different from the one (H5N1) causing the current US cow outbreak, in which three human cases have also been reported.

The person who died was 59 years old. He succumbed on April 24, at a specialized institute in the Mexican capital a few hours after being admitted to it for treatment, according to the WHO.

The Mexican Ministry of Health clarified that it was a man.

The patient presented on April 17 with fever, shortness of breath, diarrhea, nausea and general malaise, said the WHO, which was alerted to the case on May 23.

He had “no” known contact with birds or other animals, but had several underlying illnesses, the WHO noted.

No other human cases of H5N2 have been detected and there is “no risk” to the general population, according to the Mexican Ministry of Health. The WHO considers the risk of spread to be “low”.

The death follows the detection in March of cases of H5N2 in farmed birds in the state of Michoacán, which neighbors the Mexican state where the victim lived.

Other cases of H5N2 were detected in birds in the same month in Texcoco, Mexico, and in April in Temascalapa, in the same state.

At this stage, “it is not possible to ascertain whether this first human case is linked to the outbreak in birds,” the WHO noted. This is “the first human infection by the H5 virus reported in Mexico,” he added.

The H5N2 virus, considered less pathogenic than H5N1, has been detected in poultry farms in several countries around the world in recent years. However, no case of transmission to humans has been confirmed so far.

As for H5N1, there is so far no evidence of human-to-human transmission, but the WHO in April expressed “great concern” about the spread of this strain.