A TEENAGER in Canada is being treated in hospital for bird flu, in the first suspected case to be discovered in the country.
Health officials are now racing to trace the teen’s contacts and find the source of the H5N1 infection, believed to have come from birds.
2
2
“This is a rare event,” Dr Bonnie Henry, the British Columbia (BC) health officer, said in a statement.
“While it is the first detected case of H5 in a person in BC or Canada, there have been a small number of human cases in the US and elsewhere, which is why we are conducting a thorough investigation to fully understand the source of exposure.”
Bird flu has killed hundreds of millions of birds around the globe in recent years.
Sometimes, the virus seeps into the human population.
At least 903 people have been infected with H5N1 since 2003 – and over half (464) of these died.
There is still no evidence that bird flu can be transmitted between people.
But this year, there have been mounting fears that the US is struggling to contain an epidemic of H5N1 in cows, which is increasingly spilling into humans.
The pathogen has been detected in nearly 450 dairy farms across 15 states since March, and 46 people have also contracted the virus.
In Canada, British Columbia has identified at least 22 infected poultry farms since October, and numerous wild birds tested positive, according to the province.
Canada has had no cases reported in dairy cattle and no evidence of bird flu in samples of milk.
Symptoms among those infected in the US have generally been mild.
However, experts fear the sheer scale of the current spread could give the virus more opportunities to mutate, enabling H5N1 to better spread and jump between in humans.
This has led some scientists to believe the virus could be the next pandemic.
This fear was only amplified when H5N1 was recently detected in pigs for the first time.
It is not yet clear whether the Canadian teens suspected infection could be linked to the outbreak in the US, but health officials have urged for the potential to be investigated.
In a statement on its website, the British Columbia public health group said it was following up with contacts of the teen who may have been exposed to check for symptoms.
Bird flu: Could it be the next human pandemic?
By Isabel Shaw, health reporter
BIRD flu is running rampant in wildlife around the world and is now spreading in cows.
This increase in transmission has given the virus lots of opportunities to mutate – a process where a pathogen changes and can become more dangerous.
Scientists fear it’s only a matter of time before one of these mutations makes it better at spreading among mammals – and potentially humans.
Some experts believe the virus could already be spreading among some animal species.
So far, there is no evidence that H5N1 can spread between humans.
But in the hundreds of cases where humans have been infected through contact with animals over the past 20 years, the mortality rate is high.
From 2003 to 2024, 889 cases and 463 deaths caused by H5N1 have been reported worldwide from 23 countries, according to the World Health Organisation.
This puts the case fatality rate at 52 per cent.
Leading scientists have already warned an influenza is the pathogen most likely to trigger a new pandemic in the near future.
The prospect of a flu pandemic is alarming.
Although scientists have pointed out that vaccines against many strains, including H5N1, have already been developed, others are still in the pipeline.
There have been no further cases identified at this time.
They said the source of exposure is very likely to be an animal or bird.
“Very concerning news about this case of H5 avian flu in a teenager in Canada,” Dr Krutika Kuppalli, a spokeswoman for the Infectious Disease Society of America and former WHO medical officer, wrote on X (formally Twitter).
She added that the next steps include investigating patient exposures, treating the teenager to “conduct genomic sequencing to check any link to the H5N1 outbreak in US dairy herds”.
How is the outbreak affecting the UK?
Just last week UK confirmed there had been a bird flu outbreak in poultry in East Riding of Yorkshire.
This is the first incident since the UK declared itself bird flu-free in February 2024.
The discovery meant the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) increased the risk warning of bird flu for wild birds “from medium to high”.
In government guidance issued earlier this year, Brits were advised to stay at least two meters away from wild birds because of bird flu fears.
People should avoid all contact with wild birds, which includes pigeons, swans, and seagulls, UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) officials said
