Canadian Teenager in Critical Condition Confirmed to Have H5N1

The Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) has confirmed a case of H5N1 in a previously healthy teenager hospitalized in critical condition in Winnipeg. CIDRAP has the news.

The case’s confirmation marks “Canada’s first locally acquired H5N1 infection.” The H5N1 virus is “closely related to those circulating in BC poultry, meaning that it belongs to the 2.3.4.4b clade and to the D.1.1 genotype. Western Canada and a handful of western US states have seen an uptick in poultry outbreaks related to spread of the virus from birds migrating south along the Pacific flyway. The genotype is different from the B3.13 virus that has infected US dairy cattle.”

Investigations are ongoing to determine how the teen was exposed to the virus in the first place. One silver lining is that this case confirmed that “human influenza surveillance in British Columbia and Canada is effective at detecting avian influenza A(H5).”

H5N1 outbreaks on poultry farms in the U.S. continue to be reported.