Mexican Health Secretary Jorge Alcocer refuted the World Health Organization’s (WHO) claim that a 59-year-old man passed away from bird flu.
The health official said the man died from kidney and respiratory failure.
“I can point out that the statement made by the World Health Organization is pretty bad, since it speaks of a fatal case (of bird flu), which was not the case,” Alocer said.
Those who had contact with the man did not fall ill, further pointing to no signs of a transmissible virus, Alcocer described, emphasizing, “So far, there is no evidence of human-to-human transmission.”
A June 5 update to the WHO’s Disease Outbreak News reads, “On 23 May 2024, the Mexico International Health Regulations (IHR) National Focal Point (NFP) reported to PAHO/WHO a confirmed fatal case of human infection with avian influenza A(H5N2) virus detected in a resident of the State of Mexico who was hospitalized in Mexico City.”
The press release claimed that the incident is the “first laboratory-confirmed human case of infection with an influenza A(H5N2) virus reported globally and the first avian H5 virus infection in a person reported in Mexico.”
Despite claiming that the man died from bird flu, the health entity admitted that the individual who died “had no history of exposure to poultry or other animals” and had “multiple underlying medical conditions.”
Swedish journalist Peter Sweden wrote on X, “[T]he WHO lied,” adding in a subsequent post, “Turns out that the man that WHO claimed died from bird flu in Mexico was confined to a bed with type 2 diabetes and kidney failure.”
“This is the same hoax they did during covid.”