B.C.’s provincial health officer, Dr. Bonnie Henry, has confirmed that a teenager at B.C. Children’s Hospital is in critical condition with a presumptive case of H5N1 avian flu. The teenager’s initial symptoms included conjunctivitis, fever, and cough, which are common with influenza and COVID-19. However, the province’s robust testing system identified the H5N1 strain.
Health officials are working to determine how the patient acquired the infection and whether anyone else has been exposed. They are confident that no other cases have been identified so far, as the contact tracing and testing have not revealed any additional infections. The samples have been sent to the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg for confirmation.
Dr. Henry emphasized the importance of staying up to date with vaccines and practicing good hygiene to prevent the spread of the virus. She also noted that human-to-human transmission of H5N1 is rare, and there has been no evidence of sustained transmission between humans. The province has a history of one other human case of avian flu in 2014, which was acquired during travel to China. This current case is the first presumptive human case of avian flu acquired within Canada.
