Infectious disease experts say the avian flu case that infected a 13-year-old in British Columbia shows “worrisome” signs that the virus could be mutating to more easily infect humans, but that the treatment approach taken can help inform future case
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B.C. health officials said in a statement to The Canadian Press Thursday that the patient has not been discharged from BC Children’s Hospital, but that she is no longer in intensive care. They said they still don't know how the teen got infected. Physicians initiated a multiprong approach, giving the teen all three of the approved antiviral treatments available for avian flu, in addition to intubation and ventilation.
However he noted, “These mutations — the three mutations they describe in the article — increase the likelihood or the ease with which the virus combined to human airway receptors and that would be the key to it being infectious to humans: That it binds more easily.” Dr. Jesse Papenburg, a pediatric infectious diseases specialist in Montreal, says the reassuring thing is there's been no evidence of human-to-human transmission both in the B.C. and the Louisiana case and that the risk to humans remains low, outside of those who work in poultry industry. The case study notes there have been no secondary cases of transmission of the virus at home or at the hospital.
The patient's condition subsequently improved, but Uyeki cautioned that this is just a single case study of one patient’s experience, who also received other treatments, such as renal replacement therapy.
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