Healthy teen fights for life in hospital after contracting bird flu from ‘unknown source’ in Canada

A ‘healthy’ teenager is in critical condition after contracting bird flu in Canada.

And in a potentially alarming development, health officials say it’s not clear how they became infected.

Health officials are still identifying the strain, but the patient is believed to have H5N1, the virus that has infected dozens of Americans this year.

Nearly all cases in the US involved farm workers who had direct contact with infected livestock or birds – but the case in Canada is different.

The teen had not visited farms but had been exposed to dogs, cats and reptiles, provincial health officer Bonnie Henry said.

“That is absolutely an ongoing investigation,” Henry said.

The patient, who has not yet been identified, is currently being treated at a children’s hospital in British Columbia.

Henry said: “This was a healthy teenager before this, so no underlying conditions.

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“It just reminds us that in young people, this is a virus that can progress and cause quite serious illness, and that the deterioration I mentioned was quite rapid.”

The teen, Canada’s first bird flu victim in the latest outbreak, developed a fever, cough and “pink eye” on Nov. 2.

On November 8, they were admitted to hospital, where their condition deteriorated further.

The patient now suffers from severe lung damage, making it difficult to get oxygen through the body.

The World Health Organization says the risk to humans from H5N1 is low because there is no evidence the virus can spread from one person to another.

But disease experts have warned that as the virus jumps between species, the chance of evolution increases, which could lead to a pandemic.

In Canada, British Columbia has identified at least 26 dairy farms in the province and numerous wild birds have tested positive.

No cases have been reported in dairy cattle in Canada and there is no evidence of bird flu in milk samples.

Bird flu has infected nearly 450 dairy farms in 15 states since March, according to USDA data.

And earlier this month, a pig on a farm in Oregon tested positive for H5N1 for the first time in the US, raising alarm because pigs have been a source of previous human pandemics.