Bird flu leaves teen in critical condition after country's first reported case

A teenager has been left in critical condition after contracting the first presumptive human case of avian influenza (H5N1, or bird flu) in Canada.

B.C. provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry announced the patient’s status at a news conference Tuesday, noting that the teen was healthy "prior to this, so no underlying conditions."

"It just reminds us that in young people, this is a virus that can progress and cause quite severe illness, and the deterioration that I mentioned was quite rapid," she said.

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Canada's Health Minister Mark Holland confirmed the first human case in a post on X last week.

"To date, there has been no evidence of person-to-person spread of the virus in any of the cases identified globally," he wrote. "Based on current evidence in Canada, the risk to the general public remains low."

Holland also noted that the Public Health Agency of Canada is working with the BC (British Columbia) Centre of Disease Control and Office of the Provincial Health Officer, and that the agencies "will remain in close contact to protect Canadians."

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The BC government wrote in a press release last week that a "public-health investigation has been initiated to determine the source of exposure and identify any contacts."

"The source of exposure is very likely to be an animal or bird, and is being investigated by B.C.’s chief veterinarian and public health teams," the province stated.

Sam Scarpino, PhD, director of AI and life sciences at Northeastern University in Boston, said the potential H5N1 infection in Canada is "concerning" for two reasons.

The British Columbia teenager is reportedly being treated at BC Children’s Hospital. (iStock)

"First, the individual is hospitalized, which suggests a more severe infection than we have typically seen in the U.S.," he told Fox News Digital.

"Assuming they do not have underlying health conditions, it’s uncommon for teenagers to be hospitalized for an influenza infection."

This also represents the first known locally acquired H5N1 infection in Canadian history, Scarpino noted.

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"Reading between the lines in the official press release from British Columbia, it sounds as though they have reason to suspect the hospitalized individual may have had recent contact with livestock and/or wildlife, suggesting they were infected via spillover from an animal host," he said.

"However, if evidence emerges of possible human-to-human transmission, that would raise the threat level considerably."

Evidence of potential human-to-human transmission of bird flu would "raise the threat level considerably," Scarpino said. (iStock)

Regardless of how this infection occurred, Scarpino said, "It’s becoming more and more clear that H5N1 has become a persistent threat in North America."

In the U.S., as of Nov. 8, there were a total of 46 confirmed reported human cases of bird flu, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

A majority of the U.S. cases have been in California (21), Washington (11) and Colorado (10).

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Earlier this month, a CDC study revealed that among farm workers who were exposed to H5N1-infected dairy cattle, 7% had bird flu antibodies. This suggests that they were previously infected with the virus.

Based on these findings, the CDC is calling for "active monitoring of exposed workers and testing to detect and treat HPAI A(H5) infections, including those in persons with very mild symptoms."

Last week, a CDC study revealed that among farm workers who were exposed to H5N1-infected dairy cattle, 7% had bird flu antibodies. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda, File)

The agency also recommends expanded access to personal protective equipment (PPE) for farm workers.

"It’s clear we need broader, more systematic serosurveillance efforts and to triangulate the results of those studies with clinical and wastewater surveillance data," Scarpino told Fox News Digital. 

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"We also need to offer H5N1 vaccines to dairy farm workers and ensure they have access to proper PPE … We can’t afford to keep letting this virus spill over into humans," he went on. 

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"It’s only a matter of time before someone dies an unnecessary death and/or we start seeing human-to-human transmission."