B.C. teen with avian flu off oxygen, no longer infectious, Canadian health officials tell medical journal
CBC
A letter sent to the editor of The New England Journal of Medicine signed by Canadian health officials says the British Columbia teenager who tested positive for avian flu has been taken off supplemental oxygen and is no longer infectious.
The letter, which was published Tuesday and provides a summary and timeline of the case, was signed by doctors from the B.C. Centre for Disease Control, B.C. Children's Hospital, the Public Health Agency of Canada, and B.C.'s agriculture ministry.
It says the patient was a 13-year-old girl who went to a B.C. emergency room on Nov. 4 with a fever and conjunctivitis in her eyes.
The teen, who is described as having a history of mild asthma and an elevated body mass index, was initially discharged without treatment, but developed a cough, vomiting and diarrhea before she returned on Nov. 7 in respiratory distress.
The report says the girl was transferred the next day to the pediatric intensive care unit at British Columbia Children's Hospital for treatment, which included temporary tracheal intubation.
Additional information posted to the journal's website says the patient was deemed no longer infectious on Nov. 29 and no longer required supplemental oxygen as of Dec. 18.
It also indicates both the girl and her family consented to releasing additional details on her case and notes that, to date, the source of her H5N1 exposure has not yet been determined.
It says there have been no secondary cases of transmission of the virus in the girl's home or at the hospital.
The teen's infection, which was announced in November, was the first human case of H5N1 avian flu acquired in Canada. The Ministry of Health had said the teen is from the Fraser Health region, which includes several of Vancouver's eastern and southern suburbs and the Fraser Valley.
B.C.'s commercial poultry sector has been damaged by avian flu outbreaks in recent years. The most recent data posted to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency website says more than 8.5 million birds have been "impacted" in the province since the spring of 2022.
Most of the outbreaks reported in recent months in the province have been in the Fraser Valley, located within the Fraser Health region.
The investigation of the case of the teenager in B.C. with H5 avian flu included testing of pets, birds and other animals from nearby premises as well as environmental testing of soil and water, according to the province.
It determined that the strain the teen contracted closely matches the strain found in wild birds in the Fraser Valley area in October and was not directly related to outbreaks at poultry farms in B.C.
The letter sent to The New England Journal of Medicine says that the H5N1 virus can cause severe human illness.
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