BC teen with avian flu no longer infectious, taken off oxygen

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A letter sent to the editor of The New England Journal of Medicine signed by Canadian health officials says the British Columbia teenager who tested positive for avian flu has been taken off of supplemental oxygen and is no longer infectious.

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The letter, which was published Tuesday and provides a summary and timeline of the case, was signed by doctors from the BC Centre for Disease Control, BC Children’s Hospital, the Public Health Agency of Canada, and B.C.’s agriculture ministry.

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It says the patient was a 13-year-old girl who went to a B.C. emergency room on Nov. 4 with a fever and conjunctivitis in her eyes.

The teen, who was described as having a history of mild asthma and an elevated body mass index, was initially discharged without treatment, but developed a cough, vomiting and diarrhea before she returned on Nov. 7 in respiratory distress.

The report says the girl was transferred the next day to the pediatric intensive care unit at B.C. Children’s Hospital for treatment, which included temporary tracheal intubation, meaning a machine took over her breathing.

It said she arrived at B.C. Children’s with respiratory failure, pneumonia in her left lung, damage to her kidneys, a low blood-platelet count and a below-normal level of disease-fighting leukocytes in her blood.

She was put on a variety of anti-viral medications. She was also put on a machine for three days to separate the plasma from her blood cells, with the plasma then replaced with a replacement fluid and the blood returned to the body.

Additional information posted to the journal’s website says the patient was considered no longer infectious on Nov. 29 and no longer required supplemental oxygen as of Dec. 18.

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It also indicates both the girl and her family consented to releasing additional details on her case and adds thatthe source of her H5N1 exposure has not been determined.

It says there have been no secondary cases of transmission of the virus in the girl’s home or at the hospital.

The teen’s infection, which was announced in November, was the first human case of H5N1 avian flu acquired in Canada.

B.C.’s commercial poultry sector has been damaged by avian flu outbreaks in recent years. The most recent data posted to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency website says more than 8.5 million birds have been “impacted” in the province since the spring of 2022.

Most of the outbreaks reported in recent months in the province have been in the Fraser Valley, located within the Fraser Health region.

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