A 3-year-old girl in western Mexico has died after contracting bird flu in the country’s first confirmed human case of bird flu, Mexican health authorities said Tuesday.
Mexico’s Health Ministry said in a statement that the girl died at 1:35 a.m. local time due to respiratory complications resulting from the infection.
Type A H5N1 influenza has been spreading through animals and some people in the United States. Bird flu has been detected in a variety bird populations since January 2022, and in March of last year, it was found in dairy cows for the first time. There have been 70 cases in that country during the past year, according to the World Health Organization. Researchers and studies suggest that’s likely an undercount.
A Louisiana resident died earlier this year after being hospitalized with bird flu. The patient was over 65 years old and was reported to have “underlying medical conditions.” The patient developed bird flu after being exposed to wild birds and a personal backyard poultry flock that was infected with the virus, according to the health department. No other people in Louisiana were found to have been sickened by the virus.
The girl had been hospitalized in the neighboring state of Coahuila. Health officials had announced she was the country’s first human infection on Friday.
It was not known how the girl contracted the virus. Investigators were testing wild birds in the vicinity of the girl’s home.
Health officials said that 38 human contacts with the girl had been tested and all came back negative for the bird flu. The risk of more human infections was considered low, the statement said.
Sara Moniuszko and
contributed to this report.
