GENEVA: A man infected with H5N2 bird flu, the first confirmed human infection with the strain, died from multiple factors, the WHO said on Friday, adding that investigations were ongoing.
The World Health Organization announced on Wednesday that the first laboratory-confirmed human case of infection with H5N2 avian influenza virus had been reported from Mexico.
Mexico’s health ministry said the 59-year-old man had “a history of chronic kidney disease, type 2 diabetes (and) long-standing systemic arterial hypertension.”
He had been bedridden for three weeks prior to the onset of acute symptoms, developing fever, shortness of breath, diarrhea, nausea and general malaise on April 17.
The man was taken to hospital in Mexico City on April 24 and died later that day.
“The death is a multi-factorial death, not a death attributable to H5N2,” WHO spokesman Christian Lindmeier told a media briefing in Geneva on Friday.
“The patient came to the hospital after weeks of multi-factorial background of multi other diseases.”
His body was subsequently routinely tested for flu and other viruses, and H5N2 was detected, Lindmeier said.
Seventeen contacts of the case in the hospital were identified. All tested negative for influenza.
In the man’s place of residence, 12 contacts in the weeks beforehand were identified. All likewise tested negative.
“Investigations are ongoing. Serology is ongoing. That means the blood testing of contacts to see if there was any possible earlier infection,” said Lindmeier.
“At this point in time, as its multi-factorial, it’s a multi-factorial death.
“But the infection of H5N2 is being investigated to see whether he was infected by somebody visiting or by any contact with any animals before.”
The WHO said on Wednesday the source of exposure to the virus was currently unknown, though H5N2 viruses have been reported in poultry in Mexico.
Based on available information, the United Nations’ health agency assesses the current risk to the general population posed by the virus as low.
Markus Lipp, senior food safety officer at the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization, explained why the risk of contracting avian influenza though eating poultry was “negligibly low.”
“In all the hundred years of avian influenza... there has not been any demonstrated food-borne transmission,” he told the briefing, via video-link from the FAO’s headquarters in Rome.
“Animal handlers, of course, who are in extremely close contact with animals may get an infection but it’s an occupational risk. It’s not a food-borne transmission.
“Humans do not have avian influenza receptors in their gastro-intestinal tract, contrary to certain animal species, as far as we know.
“So there is a very slim likelihood, just from that perspective.”
Of all the food safety risks when eating poultry, “probably the lowest risk is connected to avian influenza. There are many other microbiological risks that are more likely to cause harm to consumers if food is inadequately prepared,” he said.
First human case of H5N2 died from multiple factors: WHO
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First human case of H5N2 died from multiple factors: WHO
- Mexico’s health ministry said the 59-year-old man had “a history of chronic kidney disease, type 2 diabetes (and) long-standing systemic arterial hypertension“
- “The death is a multi-factorial death, not a death attributable to H5N2,” WHO spokesman Christian Lindmeier said
French minister pledges tight security at rally for killed activist
- Deranque’s death has fomented tensions ahead of municipal elections next month and presidential polls next year
- Macron has said there was no place in France “for movements that adopt and legitimize violence“
LYON: French police will be out in force at a weekend rally for a slain far-right activist, the interior minister said Friday, as the country seeks to contain anger over the fatal beating blamed on the hard left.
Quentin Deranque, 23, died from head injuries after being attacked by at least six people on the sidelines of a protest against a politician from the hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) party in the southeastern city of Lyon last week.
His death has fomented tensions ahead of municipal elections next month and presidential polls next year, in which the far-right National Rally (RN) party is seen as having its best chance yet at winning the top job.
President Emmanuel Macron, who is serving his last year in office, has said there was no place in France “for movements that adopt and legitimize violence,” and urged the far right and hard left to clean up their act.
Deranque’s supporters have called for a march in his memory on Saturday in Lyon.
The Greens mayor of Lyon asked the state to ban it, but Interior Minister Laurent Nunez declined to do so.
Nunez said he had planned an “extremely large police deployment” with reinforcements from outside the city to ensure security at the rally expected to be attended by 2,000 to 3,000 people, and likely to see counter-protesters from the hard left show up.
“I can only ban a demonstration when there are major risks of public disorder and I am not in a position to contain them,” he told the RTL broadcaster.
“My role is to strike a balance between maintaining public order and freedom of expression.”
- ‘Fascist demonstration’ -
Jordan Bardella, the president of anti-immigration RN, has urged party members not to go.
“We ask you, except in very specific and strictly supervised local situations (a tribute organized by a municipality, for example), not to attend these gatherings nor to associate the National Rally with them,” he wrote in a message sent to party officials and seen by AFP.
LFI coordinator Manuel Bompard backed the mayor’s call for a ban, warning on X it would be a “fascist demonstration” that “over 1,000 neo-Nazis from all over Europe” were expected to attend.
Two people, aged 20 and 25, have been charged with intentional homicide in relation to the fatal beating, according to the Lyon prosecutor and their lawyers.
A third suspect has been charged with complicity in the killing.
Jacques-Elie Favrot, a 25-year-old former parliamentary assistant to LFI lawmaker Raphael Arnault, has admitted to having been present at the scene but denied delivering the blows that killed Deranque, his attorney said.
Favrot said “it was absolutely not an ambush, but a clash with a group of far-right activists,” he added.
Italy’s hard-right Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Wednesday said the killing of Deranque was “a wound for all of Europe.”
Referring to her comments, Macron said everyone should “stay in their own lane,” but Meloni later said that Macron had misinterpreted her comments.
Opinion polls put the far right in the lead for the presidency in 2027, when Macron will have to step down after the maximum two consecutive terms in office.
