News Excerpt:
World Health Organization (WHO) confirms first death from bird flu strain H5N2 in Mexico.
About the news:
- The World Health Organization reported the first confirmed human death due to the H5N2 type of bird flu in a 59-year-old man in Mexico who died in April.
- It adds to growing anxiety about the risk of bird flu spreading among people, especially because the man had no history of exposure to poultry or other animals.
About H5N2:
- H5N2 is just one of several kinds of avian influenza viruses.
- H5N2 belongs to a family of bird flu viruses called H5, which primarily infects poultry and wild birds.
- However, unlike other avian influenza strains that have caused outbreaks in humans — such as H1 and H3 viruses — H5 viruses rarely infect humans.
- There are a total of nine known subtypes of H5 viruses, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
- Data shows that the H5N2 virus that infected the man is a low pathogenic virus, meaning it is unlikely to cause severe illness.
- There’s a high path and a low path, and the high path one has certain genetic changes. It makes it much more likely to cause serious illness.
- The readily transmitted low path often times can infect any number of animal species with little or no symptoms.
- The viruses are classified based on two types of protein on their surfaces:
- Hemagglutinin, or H, plays a crucial role in allowing the virus to infect cells, and
- Neuraminidase, or N, which helps the virus spread.
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