Carolyn Law didn’t pay attention when a snow goose landed in her Richmond, B.C., yard on Halloween.
But a few hours later, she had barely moved. Then she started moving her head repeatedly. About eight hours after she first saw the bird, it rolled over, began convulsing and died.
“It was quite a sad thing to see, actually – really scary,” she testified.
Ms Law says she called a wildlife rescue group and was told the symptoms suggested bird flu rather than physical injury, but without testing this could not be confirmed.
Encounters like Law’s are under renewed scrutiny after a British Columbia teenager tested positive for bird flu in Canada’s first suspected case of human infection. The patient is in critical condition.
Dr. Bonnie Henry, provincial public health officer, said at a news conference Tuesday that the source of the infection was unclear.
Experts and health authorities say that while the risk of human infection with the H5N1 strain of bird flu remains low, people should avoid contact with sick or dead birds.
“People who work with animals or in environments contaminated by animals should take precautions, including using other personal protective measures to reduce the risk of contracting or spreading respiratory infectious diseases,” Health Canada warned in a press release.
Concerns about bird flu have intensified in recent years, with the virus leading to the culling of millions of poultry in North America.
The number of infections among commercial flocks has climbed to more than twenty in British Columbia in recent weeks, as migratory birds fly south for the winter.
An “almost inevitable” situation
Brian Ward, an infectious disease microbiologist at McGill University, says he can’t speculate whether the goose in Ms. Law’s yard had the flu, but “it’s possible that if increasing numbers of ducks and d geese are found dead, it is very likely that they were infected with highly pathogenic avian influenza.
Ward says it’s worrying that authorities don’t know how the British Columbia teen caught the H5N1 virus. Dr Henry said the teenager had no known contact with poultry farms.
But Brian Ward points out that human infection in Canada was “almost inevitable,” given the spread of the disease in recent years in North America and Europe. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that there were forty-six human cases of avian influenza in the United States, although there was no known human-to-human transmission.
Health Canada said in a statement that current national data shows that “the risk to the general public remains low.”
“To date, there has been no evidence of sustained human-to-human spread of the virus in any of the cases identified globally,” the ministry said. Human infection with avian influenza A (H5N1) is rare and usually occurs after close contact with infected birds or highly contaminated environments.
The ministry says humans cannot become infected by eating well-cooked poultry, eggs or meat.
Dr. Henry said the only other case in Canada was recorded in Alberta in 2014, in a person who likely contracted the virus while traveling to China.
She recognized the risk posed by wild birds.
“One of the important things we need to do now, recognizing that this virus circulates primarily in wild birds, geese and ducks, is to make sure that if you come into contact with sick or dead birds, you don’t “Don’t touch it directly and keep pets away from them,” she explained, noting that in Ontario, a dog became infected after biting a dead bird.
Take precautions and monitor symptoms
Dr. Henry explained that humans can become infected by “inhaling the virus in aerosols, in droplets that enter the eyes, the back of the throat, the nose or deep into the lungs.”
“There have been very few that could have been passed from person to person, so in some ways that’s reassuring, in that this virus doesn’t seem to spread easily between people if they are infected, but it also causes very serious illness, especially in young people,” she said.
According to the official, it is very likely that the infection of the teenager in British Columbia occurred due to exposure to a sick animal or something in the environment, but it is “entirely possible » that they can never determine the source.
She added that anyone exposed to sick or dead birds, or who has been in contact with farms where bird flu has been confirmed, should monitor themselves for flu symptoms.
“If you have symptoms within ten days of exposure to sick or dead animals, tell your health care provider that you have been in contact with sick animals and are concerned about bird flu,” a she indicated.
“This will help him give you appropriate advice on testing and treatment. Stay home and away from others while you have symptoms.”
Brian Ward also advised people who have encountered a dead bird to call authorities instead of disposing of it themselves. “But if it’s on your property and you want to get rid of it, then it makes perfect sense to wear a mask and gloves, put it in a plastic bag as soon as possible and do whatever you can to avoid aerosols,” he said, emphasizing that H5N1 is a respiratory virus.
Ms Law said her biggest worry was for her dog who had come within meters of the dying goose.
“We didn’t want to go near it,” she said.
But later that evening, her husband took matters into his own hands.
Wearing gloves and a mask, he double-bagged the dead bird and put it in the trash, “which seemed a little unceremonious to me, but I guess that’s what the we have to do,” Ms. Law said.
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