A person tested positive for avian flu for the first time in Canada, local authorities reported this Saturday.
The patient, a teenager, is being treated in a children’s hospital for avian flu caused by the H5 strain virus, said the Ministry of Health of British Columbia, a western Canadian province.
The origin of the contagion and the teenager’s contacts are under investigation. “This is a rare event“, described the local public health official, Bonnie Henry. “We are conducting a thorough investigation to fully understand the source of exposure (to the virus) here” in British Columbia, she added.
Avian flu is most often spotted among wild bird or poultry populations. It was recently identified among cows, victims of an epidemic this year in the United States, and at the end of October, in a pig – a first in this country.
Experts worry about growing number of infected mammalsalthough cases in humans remain rare. They fear that high circulation could facilitate a mutation of the virus which would allow it to pass from one human to another. In September, a person from the US state of Missouri tested positive for avian flu, without known contact with an infected animal, in an unprecedented manner in the country.
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