A young person was hospitalized and in vital situation after contracting chook flu, in what Canadian officers mentioned on Tuesday was the nation’s first identified case of the virus being transmitted to a human.
Well being officers in British Columbia have been investigating how {the teenager} got here down with the illness regardless of having no identified hyperlinks to poultry farms, the most typical websites the place chook flu has been detected in Canada.
The virus, known as H5N1, is a low threat to the general public, well being officers mentioned, as a result of it doesn’t unfold simply between folks. However extended outbreaks, resembling a cluster in U.S. dairy cattle, can enhance the probabilities of the virus mutating and spreading.
There have been 46 instances of individuals contracting the virus in america, in keeping with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, almost all of them farm workers. Most instances have been gentle.
About 36 individuals who got here into contact with the younger individual in Canada have examined unfavourable for the virus and have been provided a preventative course of antiviral treatment, Dr. Bonnie Henry, British Columbia’s well being officer, mentioned at a information convention on Tuesday. Pets additionally examined unfavourable.
Fowl flu, or avian influenza, has not damaged out in Canadian dairy farms, however at the very least two dozen poultry farms have detected the virus since October 2024, officers mentioned.
Officers are making painstaking efforts to trace down the supply of the viral publicity in British Columbia.
“There’s a very actual risk that we could not ever decide the supply, however at this level, we’ve a variety of leads that we’re following,” Dr. Henry mentioned. “We shall be monitoring down everybody as a result of that is such a uncommon occasion.”
Officers wouldn’t disclose the age or gender of {the teenager}, however mentioned the individual was in vital situation and receiving therapy on the B.C. Kids’s Hospital in Vancouver after being admitted on Friday.
A few week earlier than that, {the teenager} went to a hospital emergency room complaining of respiratory signs, and had pink eye, fever and a cough. {The teenager} was despatched dwelling on the time and didn’t attend college earlier than being admitted to the hospital, Dr. Henry mentioned.
There has solely been one different case, in 2014, of chook flu in a Canadian citizen. Specialists say they imagine that individual contracted the virus throughout a visit to China, the place H5N1 was first found about twenty years in the past. That Canadian later died.
British Columbia has warned members of the general public to keep away from dealing with lifeless birds or permitting pets close to them.
Poultry farmers have been additionally warned to take warning.
“People who find themselves elevating geese and chickens and different home fowl are suggested to maintain their flocks indoors, as these birds are spreading their avian flu viruses up and down North America,” mentioned Dr. Brian Ward, a professor at McGill College in Montreal who researches infectious illnesses.
