A ‘healthy’ teenager is in critical condition after catching bird flu in Canada.
And in a potentially alarming development, health officials say it’s not clear how they became infected.
Health officials are still identifying the strain, but the patient is assumed to have H5N1, the virus that has infected dozens of Americans this year.
Almost all of the US cases were farm workers with direct contact with infected cattle or birds – but the case in Canada is different.
The teen had not visited farms but had been exposed to dogs, cats and reptiles, according to provincial health officer Bonnie Henry.
‘That is absolutely an ongoing investigation,’ said Henry.
The patient, who has not been identified, is currently being treated in a children’s hospital in British Columbia.
Henry said: ‘This was a healthy teenager prior to this, so no underlying conditions.
PINK EYE: The H5N1 virus causes eye inflammation, as seen in a dairy farmer in Texas who caught bird flu earlier this year
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‘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.’
The teen who is Canada’s first bird flu victim in the latest outbreak – began suffering a fever, cough and ‘pink eye’ on November 2.
They were admitted to hospital on November 8, where their condition deteriorated further.
The patient is now suffering from severe lung damage making it hard to get oxygen around the body.
The World Health Organization says H5N1’s risk to humans is low because there is no evidence it can spread from one person to another.
But disease experts have warned that as the virus jumps between species, the chance of evolving increases, which could lead to a pandemic.
In Canada, British Columbia has identified at least 26 dairy farms across the province and numerous wild birds have tested positive.
Canada has had no cases reported in dairy cattle and no evidence of bird flu in samples of milk.
Bird flu has infected nearly 450 dairy farms in 15 states since March, according to USDA data.
And earlier this month a pig on an Oregon farm tested positive for H5N1 for the first time in the US which caused alarm because pigs have been a source of prior human pandemics.
