UNITED NATIONS, Feb. 5 (UPI) -- The U.N. health agency confirms the first human death from H5N1 bird flu in sub-Saharan Africa has occurred in Nigeria.
The Geneva, Switzerland, based World Health Organization said Monday it is working with authorities in the capital of Abuja to identify the source of the infection. The fatal case was only the second incidence of the virus in humans in the region.
All samples from contacts of the victim, a 22-year-old woman from Lagos, Nigeria's largest city, have so far tested negative, the U.N. agency said.
The virus was confirmed by the WHO Collaborating Center for Reference and Research on Influenza in London, WHO said.
The agency noted H5N1 has been identified in poultry outbreaks in Nigeria and, as in other affected countries, sporadic cases of human infection are not unexpected. The only other sub-Saharan African country to report human bird flu is Djibouti with one non-fatal case.
North of the Sahara only Egypt has had human cases, 19 of them with 11 fatalities.
There have so far been 271 confirmed cases worldwide, 165 of them fatal, the vast majority in Southeast Asia.
Ever since the first human case of H5N1, linked to widespread poultry outbreaks in Vietnam and Thailand, was reported in January 2004, U.N. health officials have warned the virus could evolve into a human pandemic if it mutates into a form which could transmit easily between people.
