Students across British Columbia return to school on Tuesday, but news that a teenager is hospitalized in Vancouver with a suspected case of H5 bird flu This worries some people.
Dr. Anna Wolak, a family physician in Vancouver, said many parents are likely having flashbacks to the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, even if this flu only represents a single case.
“So my main concern is the safety of our children,” she said.
“As we go back into crowded areas, into schools in general where kids are crowded into classrooms, what I hope is that over the summer and over the last few years, living with COVID, schools will have updated their filtration, purification and ventilation systems.
Wolak said teachers should always open windows to ventilate rooms and purify the air in high-traffic areas, helping to minimize children’s exposure to an airborne virus.
The teen remains at BC Children’s Hospital and health officials are assuring the public they are working to determine how the patient contracted the infection and who else he might have contacted .
Receive weekly health news
Receive the latest medical news and health information every Sunday.
The teen likely caught the virus from a bird or animal, the province said in a statement this weekend.
Wolak said there are still other respiratory viruses and encouraged parents and caregivers to make sure everyone’s vaccines are up to date.
“I don’t know if we should panic,” she added. “But it’s always good to just be concerned, like staying home when you’re sick… vaccinating and then making sure ventilation is adequate for immunocompromised children.”
H5 avian influenza is prevalent in wild birds around the world and causes outbreaks in poultry and dairy cows in the United States, with several recent human cases among U.S. dairy and poultry workers.
It is an airborne virus that cannot be contracted by eating eggs or chicken.
Dr. Troy Bourque of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency told Global News that avian flu has been present in Canada since December 2021.
“We are currently in the sixth wave of this response,” he said.
“The sixth wave started in British Columbia this year in October and has infected 24 farms in the Fraser Valley so far.”
Bourque said around six million birds have been euthanized since December 2021.
“Our effort is to try 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, whether it is a domestic bird or a wild bird. These precautions should therefore be taken when you see a dead wild bird or other dead animal, and be careful when doing so.
Bourque said every country seems to be dealing with bird flu right now and everyone should take precautions, whether they work or live near a farm or not.