Canada Confirms First Domestically Acquired Human Case of H5N1 Bird Flu

Representation of the H5N1 virus. X/ @marindatanow

November 14, 2024 Hour: 8:06 am

Currently, scientists are investigating how a teenager in British Columbia got infected.

On Wednesday, the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) confirmed the first domestically acquired human case of H5N1 avian influenza in Canada.

A teenager in British Columbia was hospitalized and tested presumptive positive for H5 avian influenza on Nov. 9, and was later confirmed to have been infected with H5N1 virus.

“On Saturday, Nov. 9, the Office of the Provincial Health Officer for British Columbia reported that a teenager in British Columbia was hospitalized and tested presumptive positive for H5 avian influenza,” PHAC stated.

“Today, the Public Health Agency of Canada’s National Microbiology Laboratory (NML) in Winnipeg confirmed that the individual has avian influenza H5N1 and the genomic sequencing result indicates that the virus is related to the avian influenza H5N1 viruses from the ongoing outbreak in poultry in British Columbia (Influenza A (H5N1), clade 2.3.4.4b, genotype D.1.1),” it added.

I feel like I am a character in a dystopian movie. We have a big chance of facing soon a pandemic with a virus that scientists know is highly neuroinvasive. H5Nx viruses like #H5N1 were already found in all the regions in the brain below. Where are the vaccines, bloody hell?!?! https://t.co/wj1qSc8kDZ pic.twitter.com/j0hQSyZGI9
— Danielle Beckman (@DaniBeckman) November 13, 2024

The genomic sequencing result indicated that the virus is related to the avian influenza H5N1 virus from the ongoing outbreak in poultry in British Columbia. No other human infections have been detected so far, and investigation is underway to determine how the individual got infected.

While there is an ongoing H5N1 outbreak in dairy cattle in the United States, no cases of avian influenza have been reported in dairy cattle in Canada and there has been no evidence of bird flu virus in milk samples. Furthermore, the clade of H5N1 virus detected in dairy cattle in the United States differed from that found in the human case reported in British Columbia.

Based on current evidence, the risk of avian influenza infection for the public remains low. The risk of bird flu infection is higher for those who have unprotected exposure to infected animals, PHAC said.