A Canadian teenager has been hospitalized and is in critical condition after contracting what appears to be H5N1 bird flu—the first such case detected in the country. Much is still unknown about the case, including how the teen became infected in the first place and whether there is any risk of a larger outbreak.
Health officials in British Columbia first announced the incident last Saturday, reporting that the teenager is being treated at the BC Children’s Hospital; on Tuesday, they reported that the teenager is currently critically ill. The teen’s initial testing came back positive for a strain of H5 avian influenza, though officials are still awaiting further tests to confirm that it’s specifically H5N1. It’s the first known human case of H5 avian influenza in Canada, and could possibly be a sign that these dangerous flu viruses are spreading further across North America.
“Our thoughts are with this young person and their family during this difficult time,” said Bonnie Henry, BC’s provincial health officer, in a statement released Saturday.
In the past few years, highly pathogenic avian influenza A strains of H5N1 have started to spread from birds to mammals. This year, H5N1 has spread widely among dairy cattle and other livestock in the United States, while there have also been 46 confirmed human cases of H5N1 in the U.S. Most of these cases (with one exception) are thought to have transmitted through contact with livestock or contaminated milk processing equipment. Right now, though, it’s unclear if the same is true for this latest case.
While there have been no detected dairy cow H5N1 cases in British Columbia to date, the virus has been found among wild birds and small wild mammals living in or migrating through the area, as well as on poultry farms. Since October 2024, H5N1 has been detected in at least 22 poultry premises in the province, according to British Columbia health officials. It’s possible, even likely, that the teen caught the virus through contact with infected birds or other animals, though we might simply never know for sure.
Documented human H5N1 cases in the U.S. this year have typically been mild, though past outbreaks of H5N1 have had a significant fatality rate reaching as high as 50%. Officials have not revealed much about the teenage victim, except to note they have no existing health conditions that would have predisposed them to severe illness. The teen’s symptoms began over a week earlier, initially presenting as conjunctivitis (pink eye), cough, and fever.
These cases of H5N1 in cows and humans currently pose a low threat to the public, health officials in the U.S. have previously said. And for now, no one in the teen’s immediate circle appears to be in danger. Local officials have so far tested three dozen recent contacts of the teen, with none having shown signs of infection.
Since no likely source of the original infection has been identified yet, though, it’s possible that others in the area could get infected the same way. And the longer term risk of these outbreaks is that strains of H5N1 will eventually adapt to mammals and humans. With enough time and bad luck, a strain could pick up a combination of mutations that would allow it to rapidly spread from person to person while causing substantial illness and death—the perfect recipe for a pandemic. The more these cases occur, the higher the odds of this nightmare scenario happening sooner than later go up.
English (US) ·