A 3-year-old girl in Mexico has died after getting the bird flu, in the country’s first confirmed human case of avian influenza, Mexican health authorities said.

The health ministry said the girl, who was from the western state of Durango, died early Tuesday after she was hospitalised with respiratory complications caused by the infection.

Type A H5N1 influenza has been spreading through animals and some people in the United States, prompting concerns that the virus could mutate to the point where it becomes more easily transmissible among people.

There have been 70 cases in the US during the past year, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), though researchers and studies suggest that’s likely an undercount.

In Mexico, the infected girl had been hospitalised in the neighbouring state of Coahuila. Health officials had announced she was the country’s first human infection on Friday.

It was not known how the girl contracted the virus. Investigators were testing wild birds in the vicinity of the girl’s home.

Health officials said that 38 human contacts with the girl had been tested and all came back negative for the bird flu.

The risk of more human infections was considered low, health officials said.