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A hospitalized teen in British Columbia is likely Canada's first case of H5 bird flu contracted within the country, officials reported Saturday (Nov. 9). H5 bird flu viruses are a broad group of related viruses that carry a protein called hemagglutinin 5.
The group includes H5N1, the virus that has been detected in at least 46 people in the U.S. this year, mostly farmworkers.
For now, H5N1 poses little threat to the general public, officials say, but emerging evidence suggests that the virus is evolving to be better at infecting mammals . What's more, the spread of seasonal flu may offer H5N1 a chance to swap DNA with other influenza viruses and potentially get better at infecting humans or causing more-severe disease. With these concerns in mind, officials in both the U.
S. and Canada are keeping an eye on the spread and evolution of bird flu. Now, a teenager from the Fraser Valley in southern British Columbia has tested positive for an H5 virus.
The presumptive positive test was performed by the B.C. Centre for Disease Control's Public Health Laboratory, and now, samples are being sent to the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg, Manitoba, to officially confirm the diagnosis.
The U.S. has been using a similar process to confirm suspected bird flu cases in the country.
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Nicoletta Lanese.
