What should parents know if a British Columbia teenager is in the hospital with suspected bird flu?

Students across British Columbia are returning to school on Tuesday, but news that a teenager is in hospital in Vancouver with suspected H5 bird flu has some people worried.

Dr. Anna Wolak, a family doctor in Vancouver, said many parents are likely having flashbacks to the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, even though this flu was an isolated case.

“So my main concern is the safety of our children,” she said.

“As we go back to the overcrowded areas, to the schools in general, where the kids are full in the classrooms, I hope that over the summer and over the last few years that we've been living with COVID, the schools will improve their situation “Filtration, its cleaning and its ventilation systems.”

Wolak said teachers should continue to open windows to ventilate rooms and purify the air in crowded areas to minimize children's exposure to airborne viruses.

The teenager remains at the Children's Hospital of British Columbia and health authorities are reassuring the public that they are working to determine how the patient contracted the infection and who else they may have contacted.

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The teenager likely contracted the virus from a bird or animal, the province said in a statement over the weekend.

Wolak said there are other respiratory viruses circulating and urged parents and caregivers to ensure all vaccinations are up to date.

“I don’t know that we need to panic,” she added. “But it's always good to just worry, for example, stay home when you're sick… get vaccinated and then make sure ventilation is adequate for children with weakened immune systems.”

H5 avian influenza is widespread in wild birds worldwide, causing outbreaks in poultry and dairy cows in the United States, with several recent human cases occurring among dairy and poultry workers in the United States.

It is an airborne virus that cannot be transmitted by eating eggs or chicken.

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H5 bird flu: BC reports the first suspected case of bird flu in humans

Dr. Troy Bourque of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency told Global News that there has been bird flu in Canada since December 2021.

“We are currently in the sixth wave of this response,” he said.

“The sixth wave began in British Columbia in October this year and has so far infected 24 farms in the Fraser Valley.”

Bourque said about six million birds have been euthanized since December 2021.

“We are trying to control this disease in the animal population to prevent further spread. In the domestic population, humans can be exposed to avian influenza from a sick or dead bird, regardless of whether it is domestic or wild. Therefore, if you see a dead wild bird or animal, these precautions should be taken and exercise caution.”

Bourque said right now every country seems to be struggling with bird flu and everyone needs to take precautions, whether they work on a farm or live near one or not.

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