Teen in critical condition with Canada’s first human case of bird flu

A teenager is in critical condition at a British Columbia children’s hospital in what is believed to be Canada’s first human case of bird flu.

“This was a healthy teenager before this, so there were no underlying conditions,” provincial health officer Bonnie Henry said at a news conference Tuesday.

“It just reminds us that in young people this is a virus that can progress and cause quite serious illness, and that the deterioration I mentioned was quite rapid.”

British Columbia health officials said Saturday that the province had detected Canada’s first human case of H5 bird flu in a teenager.

Henry said the province is still identifying the exact strain, but believes it is H5N1.

The World Health Organization says the risk to humans from H5N1 is low because there is no evidence of human transmission, but the virus has been found in an increasing number of animals, including cattle in the United States.

Henry would not reveal the teen’s gender or age, but said they first developed symptoms on Nov. 2 and were tested on Nov. 8, when they were admitted to the hospital. Symptoms included conjunctivitis, fever and cough.

As of Tuesday, they were hospitalized with acute respiratory distress syndrome, she said.

The teen had no exposure to farms, but had been exposed to dogs, cats and reptiles, Henry said. No source of infection had been identified. “That is absolutely an ongoing investigation.”

More serious illness occurs when the virus binds to receptors deep in the lungs, she said.

Public health officials had identified and tested about three dozen contacts but had found none infected with the virus.

There is no evidence that the disease spreads easily between people. But if that were to happen, a pandemic could result, scientists say.

Earlier in November, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention asked that farmworkers exposed to animals with bird flu be tested for the virus, even if they have no symptoms.

Bird flu has infected nearly 450 dairy farms in 15 U.S. states since March, and the CDC has identified 46 cases of bird flu in humans since April.

In Canada, British Columbia has identified at least 26 affected sites across the province, Henry said Tuesday, and numerous wild birds have tested positive. No cases have been reported in dairy cattle in Canada and there is no evidence of bird flu in milk samples.