A teen in British Columbia has grow to be the primary particular person in Canada to check optimistic for chicken flu, authorities stated Saturday.
This particular person is receiving remedy in a youngsters’s hospital for H5 avian flu, the provincial well being division stated.
The supply of contagion and any doable contacts are being investigated.
Officers stated the an infection in all probability got here from a chicken or animal.
“This is a rare event,” British Columbia Well being Officer Bonnie Henry stated.
“We are conducting a thorough investigation to fully understand the source of exposure here in B.C.”
Fowl flu is mostly present in wild birds and poultry, however has extra just lately been detected in mammals, with an outbreak in cattle seen throughout the USA this yr.
It might probably sometimes infect people via shut contact or contaminated environments.
Scientists have voiced concern in regards to the rising variety of mammals turning into contaminated by chicken flu, even when circumstances in people stay uncommon.
They concern a excessive fee of transmission may facilitate a mutation of the virus, which may allow it to be handed from one human to a different.
In September, officers stated an individual in Missouri turned the primary in the USA to check optimistic for chicken flu with out a recognized publicity to contaminated animals.
All earlier chicken flu circumstances in the USA have been amongst farmworkers, together with the very first, in 2022.
Within the many years since H5 has been present in people, there have been uncommon circumstances the place an animal supply can’t be recognized.
However there has thus far not been proof of sustained human-to-human transmission, which might considerably improve the menace degree.
