B.C. teen infected with avian flu released from hospital

The 13-year-old Fraser Valley girl was released from B.C. Children's Hospital on Tuesday.

Published Jan 09, 2025  •  3 minute read

This handout picture courtesy of CDC and NIAID released on May 24, 2024 shows a colourized transmission electron micrograph of avian influenza A H5N1 virus particles (in gold). Photo by CDC and NIAID /AFP PHOTO

A Fraser Valley teenager hospitalized for two months after contracting avian flu has been released from B.C. Children’s Hospital.

On Thursday, health officials with Provincial Health Services Authority said she was discharged from the hospital on Tuesday and that the family had consented to sharing this information.

The 13-year-old girl, who has a history of mild asthma, went to a B.C. emergency room on Nov. 4 with a fever and conjunctivitis.

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She was initially discharged without treatment, but developed a cough, vomiting and diarrhea before she returned on Nov. 7 in respiratory distress.

She was then transferred to an intensive care unit at B.C. Children’s Hospital for treatment for avian flu. It was the first human case of H5N1 avian flu in Canada.

For weeks, the girl was in stable but critical condition.

Last week, she was taken off taken off supplemental oxygen and it was announced she was no longer infectious.

Health officials don’t usually release details about patients or the care they receive but made an exception given the amount of global interest in humans contracting avian flu.

A statement from the health authority Thursday said the family would like to thank the staff at B.C. Children’s Hospital for their care and support.

“This has been a life changing experience for our daughter and for our family, and we are grateful to have her home with us. We thank everyone for their concern and wishes for our daughter and our family throughout this ordeal,” the family said, in the statement.

“Respectfully, we ask for privacy as she continues to heal and we rebuild our lives after this traumatic experience. We will not be making ourselves available for media interviews.”

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The teen 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, according to the editor of The New England Journal of Medicine signed by Canadian health officials.

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

The source of her H5N1 exposure has not been determined.

Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry has said there was no evidence of transmission from the teen and no evidence of other cases in B.C.

Meantime, the B.C. Centre for Disease Control says it is comparing the genetic features of the teen’s avian flu case with that of a Louisiana patient who died this week.

Clinical microbiologist Dr. Agatha Jassem, co-program head of the virology lab at the centre’s public health laboratory, says the centre wants to understand how the viruses in the two cases are related to each other, as well as to viruses circulating in birds.

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This will help to assess how easily it adapts and transmits between animals and humans. Both cases are related to viruses detected in wild birds and poultry. While there is no evidence of human-to-human infection in either, it’s something experts are keeping an eye on.

Louisiana health officials said Monday that a patient hospitalized with severe avian flu died, marking the first H5N1 fatality in the United States.

Jassem says the U.S. patient shared one of the three genetic mutations identified in the Canadian case, which infectious disease specialists have said could make it easier for the virus to spread from person-to-person.

The lab is conducting a comparative genomic analysis, testing samples collected on different days with a variety of methods to determine how the mutations affect replication of the virus in human airways.

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With files from The Canadian Press and Cheryl Chan

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