No new known cases of avian flu in humans in B.C.

Following the country’s first human case of H5N1 avian flu, British Columbia health authorities have closed their investigation. They say they have not found any other cases or any specific reason for this contamination. The sick teenager remains in critical but stable condition.

Tuesday, Dr. Bonnie Henrythe province’s chief medical health officer, was reassuring in her update on the contact tracing and investigation process.

There is no evidence of transmission of the disease from this young person and no evidence of other cases in British Columbia.

According to Bonnie Henry, the Fraser Valley Health Authority and the British Columbia Center for Disease Control (BCCDC) conducted an extensive investigation and identified 34 health care staff and 16 close contacts of the child. with the patient. After 10 days of incubation and monitoring, none tested positive for the H5N1 virus.

In addition, health teams tested more than 25 animals and took 10 environmental samples around the sick teenager’s home, without finding any traces of contamination.

The job seems to have been done very well, they looked at all the possibilitiesestimates Dr. Jean-Pierre Vaillancourt, full professor at the faculty of veterinary medicine at the University of Montreal. When they say they are sure there is no human-to-human or other transmissions, they seem to be right.

The teenager still in critical condition

The Fraser Valley teenager who contracted the disease, whose gender and age are unknown, is still being treated in the pediatric ward at the British Columbia Children’s Hospital in Vancouver.

Bonnie Henry indicates he is in critical but stable condition. The teenager is intubated and cannot breathe on his own, preventing health authorities from communicating with him.

These finally conclude that the contamination of this teenager is not linked to those which take place on farms in British Columbia.

The only potential case considered was that of the family dog, which fell ill when the child was infected. But once again, all the tests carried out were negative, assure the authorities.

The dog was not infected, that is clear, but that does not mean that the dog was not contaminated.specifies Jean-Pierre Vaillancourt. Due to the low resistance of the avian H5N1 virus to the environment, it is possible that it had disappeared from the animal at the time of the tests, according to him.

A “pandemic potential” of the disease

We are aware of the pandemic potential of this diseasehowever, warns the province’s chief medical officer of health, inviting British Columbians to get vaccinated against the flu.

She adds that studies show that although the strains of influenza and bird flu are different, the flu vaccine can help protect against bird flu.

For its part, the avian flu virus has infected 54 poultry farms in British Columbia, including 13 additional farms in one week. All of these farms are under quarantine by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) and subject to restrictions.

The chief medical officer of health recommends that the population keep pets away from ponds and other bodies of water. She also asks not to touch dead animals and birds, but to report them so that they can be analyzed.

With information from Francis Plourde