Canada has confirmed its first presumptive case of H5 bird flu in a person, involving a teenager in the western province of British Columbia, health officials reported on Saturday.
The teenager is believed to have contracted the virus from a bird or animal and is currently receiving care at a children’s hospital. Authorities are investigating the source of the exposure and identifying the teenager’s contacts. Canada’s Health Minister, Mark Holland, assured that the risk to the public remains low.
“This is a rare event,” said Bonnie Henry, British Columbia’s Health Officer. “We are conducting a thorough investigation to fully understand the source of exposure in B.C.”
H5 bird flu is widely present in wild birds globally and has caused outbreaks in poultry and U.S. dairy cows, with several recent human cases among U.S. poultry and dairy farm workers. However, there has been no evidence of person-to-person transmission so far. Scientists have warned that if such transmission were to occur, it could lead to a pandemic.
Earlier in November, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommended testing farm workers exposed to animals infected with bird flu, even if they show no symptoms.
As reported by Economic Times, since March, bird flu has affected nearly 450 dairy farms across 15 U.S. states, with the CDC reporting 46 human cases of the virus since April.
In Canada, British Columbia has reported at least 22 infected poultry farms since October, and numerous wild birds have tested positive for the virus. However, no cases of bird flu have been reported in dairy cattle, and there is no evidence of bird flu in milk samples.