Tag: H5N1

Published by: The Guardian
Published on: November 19, 2024
By Melody Schreiber

The teenager hospitalized with bird flu in British Columbia, Canada, may have a variation of the virus that has a mutation making it more transmissible among people, early data shows – a warning of what the virus can do that is especially worrisome in countries such as the US where some H5N1 cases are not being detected.

The US “absolutely” is not testing and monitoring bird flu cases enough, which means scientists could miss mutated cases like these, said Richard Webby, a virologist at St Jude children’s research hospital’s department of infectious diseases.

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avian flu

H5N1 bird flu virus in Canadian teenager displays mutations demonstrating virus’ risk

Published November 18, 2024

Published by: STAT
Published on: November 18, 2024
By Helen Branswell

The genetic sequence of the H5N1 bird flu virus that infected a teenager in British Columbia shows that the virus had undergone mutational changes that would make it easier for that version of H5N1 to infect people, scientists who have studied the data say.

There’s currently no evidence the teenager, who remains in critical condition in hospital, infected anyone else. If that’s the case, it is likely this mutated version of the virus would die out when the teen’s illness resolves. The source of the teen’s infection has not been determined, so it’s impossible to know for sure if the mutations were in the virus that infected him or her. But scientists think it is more likely that the mutations developed during the course of his or her infection.

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avian flu

Canadian teen’s bird flu infection is not the version found in cows

Published November 13, 2024

Published by: STAT
Published on: November 13, 2024
By Helen Branswell

A Canadian teenager who is in critical condition after contracting H5N1 bird flu was infected with a version of the virus that is different from the one circulating in dairy cattle in the United States, Canadian authorities announced Wednesday.

The National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg confirmed the infection was indeed caused by the H5N1 virus. But genetic sequencing showed that it is of a genotype that has been found in wild birds, not the version that has been circulating in dairy cattle in the U.S.

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avian flu

Testing confirms B.C. teen infected with Canada’s first human case of avian flu

Published November 13, 2024

Published by: CTV News
Published on: November 13, 2024
By Lisa Steacy

Federal health officials have confirmed that a B.C. teen who is currently in hospital has Canada’s first human case of H5N1 avian flu.

Testing at the national microbiology labaratory in Winnipeg confirmed the case Wednesday, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada.

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avian flu

Avoid contact with sick or dead birds, health officials urge, amid concerns about avian flu

Published November 13, 2024

Published by: CBC News
Published on: November 13, 2024

Carolyn Law didn’t think much of it when a snow goose landed in her Richmond, B.C., backyard, on Halloween.

But hours later it had barely moved. Then it started bobbing its head repeatedly. About eight hours after she first saw the bird, it rolled over, began convulsing and died.

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avian flu

Canadian teen with suspected avian flu in critical condition

Published November 12, 2024

Published by: CIDRAP
Published on: November 12, 2024
By Lisa Schnirring

A British Columbia (BC) teen from the Fraser Health region who was hospitalized with an earlier announced presumptive positive H5 avian flu infection is in critical condition, the province’s top health official said today.

In a media briefing streamed live on Canada’s Global News, Bonnie Henry, MD, BC’s health officer, shared the latest investigation findings, noting that the patient’s symptoms began on November 2, and he or she was seen that day at a hospital emergency room. She said initial symptoms included conjunctivitis, fever, and cough.

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avian flu

B.C. teen with bird flu is in critical condition, says Dr. Bonnie Henry

Published November 12, 2024

Published by: Vancouver Sun / The Canadian Press
Published on: November 12, 2024
By Chuck Chiang

B.C.’s provincial health officer says the teenager who has tested positive for bird flu is in critical condition in B.C. Children’s Hospital.

Dr. Bonnie Henry says the teenager, who has the first presumptive human case of bird flu contracted in Canada, was admitted to hospital late Friday. B.C. tests last week confirmed the teenager has the virus, but are waiting confirmation from a national laboratory in Winnipeg.

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avian flu

B.C. investigating 1st presumptive human avian flu case in Canada

Published November 9, 2024

Published by: CBC News
Published on: November 9, 2024

British Columbia health officials are investigating what’s believed to be Canada’s first human case of avian influenza after a teenager tested presumptively positive for the disease, the Ministry of Health announced Saturday.

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avian flu

Wastewater testing for avian influenza to begin in some Ontario communities

Published November 8, 2024

Published by: Ottawa Citizen
Published on: November 8, 2024
By Elizabeth Payne

As bird flu infections continue to rise among livestock and humans in the United States, surveillance is ramping up in Canada.

Wastewater testing for the H5N1 bird flu virus is set to begin in the coming weeks in Ontario communities considered at high risk, said Rob Delatolla, whose University of Ottawa lab will lead the wastewater surveillance as part of a research program based at the University of Guelph. That will likely mean testing wastewater in communities in agricultural regions of the province. It is unclear whether there will also be testing in larger cities.

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avian flu

CDC expands avian flu testing for farm workers, notes 7% infection rate in those exposed to infected cows

Published November 7, 2024

Published by: CIDRAP
Published on: November 7, 2024
By Lisa Schnirring

An eagerly anticipated serology study in farm workers exposed to H5N1-infected dairy cattle shows that 7% had antibodies suggesting prior infection, findings that today triggered enhanced testing, prophylactic (preventive) treatment, and use of personal protective equipment (PPE) from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

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H5N1 avian flu isolate from dairy worker is transmissible, lethal in animals

Colourized transmission electron micrograph of avian influenza virus particles. Photo: CDC and NIAID. Creative Commons CC BY 2.0 DEED Attribution 2.0 Generic license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/.

avian flu

H5N1 avian flu isolate from dairy worker is transmissible, lethal in animals

Published October 28, 2024

Published by: CIDRAP
Published on: October 28, 2024
By Lisa Schnirring

In experiments designed to learn more about the threat from the H5N1 avian flu virus spreading from cows to people, researchers found that an isolate from a sick dairy worker may be capable of replicating in human airway cells, is pathogenic in mice and ferrets, and can transmit among ferrets by respiratory droplets.

The team, based at the University of Wisconsin at Madison and Japan, reported its findings today in Nature. Working in a high-containment lab, the researchers used an H5N1 isolate grown from the eye of a dairy worker who had experienced conjunctivitis after exposure to infected cows.

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Ontario: Contact councillors — save Ontario’s wastewater monitoring!

Image with dark blue background, and white and gold text. Text at the top reads: Ottawa, London, Waterloo Region. Save our early warning system for viruses. Below the text, there is a chart with red text reading: no data.

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Ontario: Contact councillors — save Ontario’s wastewater monitoring!

Published September 10, 2024

📣 Let municipal councillors know you want funding for wastewater monitoring to continue

✉️ Send letters to municipal councillors to voice your support for wastewater monitoring. Use our online tool to send emails.

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Ontario

Ontario has a globally praised system for monitoring diseases through wastewater. So why is the province shutting it down?

Published July 30, 2024

Published by: The Globe and Mail
Published on: July 30, 2024
By Ivan Semeniuk

For the past three years, Alexandra Johnston has started her work day by reaching for the pickaxe in the trunk of her car.

It is her tool of choice for prying open manhole covers – a task she demonstrated with practised ease last week while on a tour of her wastewater sampling regimen in Toronto.

Wearing a surgical mask and gloves, Ms. Johnston dragged the heavy cover aside, then grabbed hold of the fishing line secured underneath. After hauling up a few metres of line, she displayed her catch: a dripping wet tampon she had placed there the day before.

Her teammate, Claire Gibbs, quickly moved in with a prelabelled plastic bag to capture the sewage-laden sample. Using scissors, Ms. Gibbs deftly snipped the line, sealed the bag and stowed it away in the trunk as part of that day’s delivery.

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avian flu

Colorado reports avian flu infections in 5 people who culled sick poultry

Published July 15, 2024

Published by: CIDRAP
Published on: July 15, 2024
By Lisa Schnirring

The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) has reported five human H5 avian influenza infections in workers who were part of the response to a recent large outbreak at a layer farm, four of which have been confirmed by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Patients have eye, respiratory symptoms

The patients have mild illness, including conjunctivitis and common respiratory symptoms. None were hospitalized, according to statements from the CDPHE. Though officials haven’t said if the virus on the poultry farm is the same as the B3.13 genotype infecting dairy cattle, conjunctivitis has also been reported in four dairy farm workers over the past few months.

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avian flu

Avian influenza in the United States closely monitored by authorities

Published June 30, 2024

Published by: Radio-Canada / The Canadian Press
Published on: June 30, 2024

The rise in the number of cases of avian influenza on farms in the United States, the infection of cow herds and recent cases of transmission to human beings are of concern to Quebec and Canadian authorities, who say they are monitoring the situation very closely.

Avian influenza – specifically avian influenza of subtypes H5 and H7 – is a reportable disease in Quebec. Avian influenza is a zoonosis, meaning it can be transmitted from animals to humans.

Cases of avian influenza in humans remain very rare, but last spring three cases of human infection associated with infected dairy farms were reported in the United States. Two infected people had eye symptoms and the third person suffered a respiratory infection.

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avian flu

Finland to start bird flu vaccinations for humans, in world first

Published June 26, 2024

Published by: Reuters
Published on: June 26, 2024

Finland plans to offer preemptive bird flu vaccination as soon as next week to some workers with exposure to animals, health authorities said on Tuesday, making it the first country in the world to do so.

The Nordic country has bought vaccines for 10,000 people, each consisting of two injections, as part of a joint EU procurement of up to 40 million doses for 15 nations from manufacturer CSL Seqirus (CSL.AX).

The European Commission said Finland would be the first country to roll out the vaccine.

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avian flu

Former director of the CDC predicts the next pandemic will be from bird flu

Published June 17, 2024

Published by: The Independent
Published on: June 17, 2024
By Gustaf Kilander

The former director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Robert Redfield, has said that the next pandemic could be from bird flu.

The World Health Organization recently announced the first human death from bird flu in Mexico, and the virus has been found in cattle across the US.

“I really do think it’s very likely that we will, at some time, it’s not a question of if, it’s more of a question of when we will have a bird flu pandemic,” Redfield told NewsNation on Friday.

He added that the mortality rate is likely to be much higher from bird flu compared to Covid-19.

While the mortality rate was 0.6 per cent for Covid-19, Redfield said the mortality for the bird flu would probably be “somewhere between 25 and 50 per cent.”

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Ontario

Cutting wastewater surveillance is short-sighted

Published June 8, 2024

Published by: Toronto Star
Published on: June 8, 2024

Ontario to halt COVID wastewater surveillance program, June 4

The Ontario government’s plan to axe funding for wastewater surveillance is irresponsible. Wastewater monitoring is an essential public health tool that provides insights into the spread of SARS-CoV-2, influenza and other viruses. Without funding, we will lose important information about the prevalence of these significant health concerns.

The timing of the announcement is astonishing. We are faced with an ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, and new hyper-infectious subvariants are spreading rapidly. We will be hindered in providing an early warning system to inform everyone about new subvariants and emerging pandemic threats such as avian flu.

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Tag: H5N1

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Patients have eye, respiratory symptoms

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