Canada reports its first human case of bird flu after a teenager tested positive

A teenager in British Columbia has tested positive for bird flu, marking the first confirmed human case of the H5 strain in Canada.
Authorities announced the news on Saturday, saying the person is currently being treated at a children’s hospital in British Columbia, where specialists are closely monitoring his condition.
The provincial health department has launched an investigation to determine the source of the infection and identify possible contacts. Health officials suspect the transmission likely came from an animal, with Dr. Bonnie Henry, British Columbia’s medical officer of health, emphasized the unusual nature of the case.
“This is a rare event,” British Columbia Medical Officer of Health Bonnie Henry said in a statement. “We are conducting a thorough investigation to fully understand the source of the exposure here in B.C.”
While bird flu typically occurs in wild birds and poultry, recent reports have shown that the virus also occurs in mammals, with outbreaks affecting several species across North America, including cattle in the United States this year. Although cases in humans remain rare, health experts have raised concerns that bird flu could potentially mutate and spread among humans, especially given the increase in cases in animals.
The risks associated with bird flu are heightened by the virus’s ability to jump species, which could ultimately facilitate human-to-human transmission – a development that scientists say could pose a significant risk to public health.
In another case, officials in the United States recently reported an avian flu infection in a person from Missouri, notably the first case in which no direct contact with infected animals was detected. All previous cases in the U.S., starting in 2022, involved farm workers who had direct contact with infected poultry.
Although there have been isolated cases of H5 bird flu in humans worldwide, sustained human-to-human transmission has not yet been observed.
Bird flu has affected about 450 dairy farms in 15 states since March, while the CDC has documented 46 human infections since April.
In British Columbia, Canada, authorities have discovered the virus in at least 22 poultry plants since October, with several wild birds also testing positive, according to provincial data.