The 13-year-old British Columbia girl who became the first critical pediatric bird flu patient in North America has been released from hospital, health officials announced Thursday.
The Provincial Health Services Authority (PHSA) said the teen was released from BC Children’s Hospital on January 7.
“This has been life-changing for our daughter and our family, and we are grateful to have her home with us,” the family said in a statement released by PHSA.
“We thank everyone for their concern and well wishes for our daughter and family throughout this ordeal. Respectfully, we ask for privacy as she continues to heal and rebuild our lives after this traumatic experience.
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The PHSA added that the information was released with the family’s consent, and only because of global interest in the case.
An extensive public health investigation was unable to determine how the girl first contracted the virus.
A case summary published in the New England Journal of Medicine late last month offered a terrifying glimpse into how quickly the girl’s symptoms progressed, to the point where she was placed on a ventilator and an ECMO heart and lung machine.
The teenager first presented to the hospital on November 4 with a fever and conjunctivitis in both eyes, but was discharged without treatment.
She returned to the emergency room on November 7 with symptoms including cough, vomiting and diarrhea, and was transferred to BC Children’s Hospital the next day with rapidly worsening symptoms, including respiratory failure, pneumonia and acute kidney injury.
She was intubated for almost two weeks and was not taken off supplemental oxygen until December 18.
In the journal’s case summary, doctors also noted that genetic sequencing of the virus revealed “worrisome” mutations that could increase binding to human airway receptors.
British Columbia health officials say testing revealed the virus was H5N1 clade B.2.3.4.4B and genotype D1.1, the same clade and genotype detected in wild birds in British Columbia, as well as during outbreaks on poultry farms in the province.