WHO Confirms India's Second Human Case Of Bird Flu In Bengal 4-Yr-Old. First Was In 2019

The patient was exposed to poultry at home and in his surroundings, but no other person in his family is known to have suffered from any symptoms that the child showed.

The World Health Organization (WHO) on Tuesday said a case of human infection with bird flu caused by the H9N2 virus was detected in a four-year-old in West Bengal. The child was admitted to the paediatric intensive care unit (ICU) of a local hospital after suffering from persistent severe respiratory issues, high fever and abdominal cramps in February, reported Reuters. 

The child was discharged three months after diagnosis and treatment, the WHO said.  

The patient was exposed to poultry at home and in his surroundings, but no one else among his family is known to have suffered from any symptoms of respiratory illness, the agency said, according to Reuters.

The WHO added that information on the vaccination status and details of antiviral treatment were not available at the time of reporting. 

This is the second human infection by H9N2 virus in India, with the first reported in 2019, the WHO was quoted as saying by Reuters.

The H9N2 virus typically tends to cause mild illness, the United Nations agency said. Further sporadic human cases, it added, could occur as this virus is one of the most prevalent avian influenza viruses circulating in poultry in different regions.

Death From Bird Flu In Mexico

In April, a Mexican man died from a strain of bird flu (H5N2) that has never been detected in humans. According to The Guardian, the WHO said it didn't know how the man got infected with the virus.

The 59-year-old Mexican man, who suffered from prior health complications, was hospitalised in Mexico City, and died on April 24, after developing a fever, shortness of breath, diarrhoea, nausea and general discomfort, the WHO said, as quoted in a Reuters report. According to the WHO, this marked the first laboratory-confirmed human case of infection with an influenza A(H5N2) virus globally and the first avian H5 virus reported in a person in Mexico.

However, the UN agency said the current risk from bird flu virus to the general population is low.

In a statement, Mexico’s health ministry stated that there had been no evidence of person-to-person transmission of bird flu in the case of the man.