[BC省新聞] First human bird flu case arrives Vancouver from HK identified, health, flight, humans, China

lomowest

North America's first case of avian flu involves patient who travelled in mainland China, then flew out of HK on January 12 Air Canada Flight
PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 27 January, 2015, 9:44am
UPDATED : Tuesday, 27 January, 2015, 10:35am
Ian Young in Vancouver
[email protected]





North America’s first case of bird flu in humans has been identified in a Vancouver-area woman who returned to the city on a flight from Hong Kong this month.

Canadian health authorities said the patient, who tested positive to the H7N9 strain of avian flu on Monday morning, is not gravely ill. Because the risk of transmission is low, the woman is being allowed to recover at home, authorities said.

“The individual did not require hospitalisation and is currently recovering from their illness, in self-isolation,” said a statement issued Monday by the health ministers of Canada and British Columbia.

“All close contacts of the individual have been identified and their health is being monitored by provincial public health authorities. The Canadian healthcare system has strong procedures and controls in place to respond to and control the spread of infectious diseases and protect healthcare workers.”

The patient arrived in Vancouver on Air Canada Flight 8 on January 12. Canada’s Public Health Agency stressed that the patient had “recently returned to Canada from China”, but Flight 8 departs from Hong Kong.

“Though the individual was not symptomatic [during the flight], and H7N9 does not transmit easily from person-to-person, the Agency is committed to ensuring Canadians have all the information they need, as a result, we are sharing the flight number,” the agency said.

It said the woman was a resident of British Columbia and that she only became sick after arriving back home. “The risk to Canadians of getting sick with H7N9 is very low as evidence suggests that it does not transmit easily from person-to-person,” the statement said. The H7N9 strain has not been detected in Canadian poultry.

A 68-year-old woman tested positive for H7N9 in Hong Kong last month, and the discovery of the virus in poultry imported from the mainland resulted in a cull and the closure of the Cheung Sha Wan market. Live poultry sales were temporarily halted but resumed on January 11.

“I would like to reassure British Columbians that while we have identified the first case of influenza H7N9 here in BC, the risk to the public remains very low,” said BC health minister Terry Lake said. “This strain does not transmit easily from person to person, and I am pleased to report that the patient is recovering. I would like to send my best wishes to [her family], and would also like to thank our dedicated public health officials for their commitment to protecting the health and safety of all British Columbians.”

Dr Gregory Taylor, Chief Public Health Officer of Canada, said the “risk of H7N9 to Canadians is very low as there is no evidence of sustained human-to-human transmission.”

The Globe and Mail newspaper reported that the patient and her husband, both aged in their 50s, had travelled together and both were now sick at home. Tests have not yet confirmed the man’s suspected H7N9 infection.

The newspaper quoted Bonnie Henry, BC’s deputy provincial health officer, as saying the couple “did some touring of areas and villages in China where poultry are seen throughout the village, but there was not a particularly high-risk exposure that we were able to identify.”

Authorities in China and the World Health Organisation had been notified about the BC case, the Canadian Public Health Agency said.

H7N9 emerged in China in 2013, and last year infected more than 450 people there, killing 175, the World Health Organisation said.

Canada’s large and well-travelled mainland Chinese and Hong Kong immigrant populations have previously had public health implications for the country, most significantly during the 2003 outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (Sars). A major outbreak of the disease occurred in Toronto, triggered by a patient who was infected in Hong Kong’s Metropole Hotel and then flew to Canada.

Forty-four people died and more than 400 were infected in Toronto. Vancouver narrowly avoided a major outbreak when another person infected at the Metropole was swiftly diagnosed and isolated upon arrival in British Columbia. A nurse at the hospital where the man was quarantined was the only case of secondary transmission in Vancouver; three other probable Sars cases in Vancouver were contracted outside Canada.