GENEVA: The World Health Organization has confirmed that the first confirmed human death globally due to infection with the H5N2 variant of bird flu has occurred in Mexico.

Mexican health authorities confirmed a case of human infection with the virus to the UN health body on May 23, after a 59-year-old was taken to hospital in Mexico City.

The patient, who died on April 24 after developing fever, shortness of breath, diarrhoea and nausea, had "no history of exposure to poultry or other animals" and "multiple underlying medical conditions", the WHO said.

The WHO added that this is the "first laboratory-confirmed human case of infection with an influenza A(H5N2) virus reported globally" and the source of exposure to the virus was unknown.

Cases of H5N2 have been reported in the state of Michoacan in March, and other outbreaks around Mexico.

However, bird flu usually poses a low risk to people and WHO said establishing a link between the human case and the poultry infections was so far impossible.

A different strain of the virus, H5N1, has been spreading among dairy cow herds in the United States. A small number of cases among humans were also reported with no human-to-human infections.