Avian flu in humans: don’t panic, experts say

Should we be afraid of contracting bird flu? According to experts, the detection of the H5N1 virus in a teenager from British Columbia, if his infection is confirmed, would be a first in Canada and would remain, for the moment, a very rare case.

The youngster is receiving treatment at Vancouver Children’s Hospital and authorities are still trying to understand how the Fraser Valley teen contracted the virus.

At this time, we do not have clear information on potential exposures. But it is obviously very important to understand what the potential exposures could have beenbelieves Samira Mubaraka, a clinician scientist at the Sunnybrook Health Sciences Center at the University of Toronto.

Fortunately, this is a very rare event, although it has happened before. This particular virus, i.e. the highly pathogenic avian influenza virus, does not transmit as efficiently between humansrecalls the expert, who specifies however that the current avian flu virus is a little different from previous strains.

It appears to circulate most abundantly among wild birds in particular, and it spreads quite widely among poultry and mammals. So it’s a little bit different than what we’ve seen in the past.

Don’t panic

Even if the virus has transformed, we should not be overly concerned, according to Doctor Brian Conway, infectious disease specialist and medical director of the Francophone Community Health Center Santé Ouest.

I think we must remain calm, but vigilantbelieves the doctor who recalls that, since the end of the 1990s, there have been approximately 900 cases of avian flu in cattle in the United States. But there was no transmission from one human being to another, so be vigilant, but without panicking.

The most important thing, according to him, is that people get vaccinated against other strains of influenza. It is important to get vaccinated for human flu because what we potentially fear is that the individual will be infected with human flu, will be stuck with avian flu, that the virus will recombineexplains Dr. Conway.

And then there’s an obvious potential that it could infect humans, but viral recombination would speed up the process. This is what we fear.

According to him, the best protection is to be vaccinated against the microbes for which a vaccine exists.

Authorities are awaiting confirmation of the suspected case of avian flu from the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg.

With broadcast information The Early Edition et West Lighthouse