Commonground
Senior Moderator
h/t: @ChildrenNeedUs_
[bolding is mine]
Hospitals testing for H5N1 avian flu as virus season ramps up
November 19, 2024
As respiratory season ramps up in Ontario, hospitals are being asked to take extra steps to screen patients for avian influenza.
That enhanced surveillance, which began earlier this year, has taken on a new urgency with the confirmation of Canada’s first domestically acquired case of avian influenza, in a British Columbia teenager. The teen, who was in intensive care with acute respiratory distress, had no known contact with infected livestock, including any of the B.C. poultry farms where birds have been infected. A family dog that had been ill tested negative for avian flu, officials reported. The case was identified earlier this month.
Genotyping of the highly pathogenic H5N1 bird flu that infected the teenager shows the virus had undergone mutations that would make it easier to infect people, according to scientists. The virus is similar to a strain that has infected poultry.
The case has put health officials and pandemic experts on alert. H5N1 is considered a pandemic threat if the virus mutates enough to allow sustained human-to-human transmission, something that has not been reported.
-snip-
British Columbia. But earlier this week, highly pathogenic avian influenza was confirmed in commercial poultry in the area around Saint-Hyacinthe, just east of Montreal, according to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. A second possible outbreak is being investigated in Quebec.
-snip-
Reassortment can occur when two different influenza viruses infect the same cell and exchange gene segments, creating a virus with a combination of genes from both viruses
Provincial health officials are asking hospitals to conduct further tests on patients who have tested positive for seasonal influenza, or send samples to Public Health Ontario, to see if they have avian flu and, if so, for genotyping. That includes all ICU patients who have tested positive for influenza. They are also being told to screen hospitalized patients with flu-like symptoms for potential exposure to infected birds or mammals. That could include wild game or birds, hobby farms, raw milk or livestock, according to a memo from the office of Ontario’s Chief Medical Officer of Health.
3h
Canadian hospitals begin testing suspected human cases of bird flu :
From apple.news
[bolding is mine]
Hospitals testing for H5N1 avian flu as virus season ramps up
November 19, 2024
As respiratory season ramps up in Ontario, hospitals are being asked to take extra steps to screen patients for avian influenza.
That enhanced surveillance, which began earlier this year, has taken on a new urgency with the confirmation of Canada’s first domestically acquired case of avian influenza, in a British Columbia teenager. The teen, who was in intensive care with acute respiratory distress, had no known contact with infected livestock, including any of the B.C. poultry farms where birds have been infected. A family dog that had been ill tested negative for avian flu, officials reported. The case was identified earlier this month.
Genotyping of the highly pathogenic H5N1 bird flu that infected the teenager shows the virus had undergone mutations that would make it easier to infect people, according to scientists. The virus is similar to a strain that has infected poultry.
The case has put health officials and pandemic experts on alert. H5N1 is considered a pandemic threat if the virus mutates enough to allow sustained human-to-human transmission, something that has not been reported.
-snip-
British Columbia. But earlier this week, highly pathogenic avian influenza was confirmed in commercial poultry in the area around Saint-Hyacinthe, just east of Montreal, according to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. A second possible outbreak is being investigated in Quebec.
-snip-
Reassortment can occur when two different influenza viruses infect the same cell and exchange gene segments, creating a virus with a combination of genes from both viruses
Provincial health officials are asking hospitals to conduct further tests on patients who have tested positive for seasonal influenza, or send samples to Public Health Ontario, to see if they have avian flu and, if so, for genotyping. That includes all ICU patients who have tested positive for influenza. They are also being told to screen hospitalized patients with flu-like symptoms for potential exposure to infected birds or mammals. That could include wild game or birds, hobby farms, raw milk or livestock, according to a memo from the office of Ontario’s Chief Medical Officer of Health.
3h
Canadian hospitals begin testing suspected human cases of bird flu :
From apple.news