Canada buys 500,000 doses of H5N1 avian influenza vaccine for those most at risk
The Public Health Agency of Canada said Wednesday it's purchased 500,000 doses of a human vaccine to protect against avian influenza for those most at risk from being exposed to the virus by infected animals.
PHAC said it had secured the initial supply of GSK's Arepanrix H5N1 A/America vaccine by leveraging an existing agreement.
"While the current risk to the public remains low, individuals with higher-level exposure to infected animals are at increased risk and should take appropriate precautions," the agency said in a statement.
Canada reported its first domestically acquired human case of avian influenza, known formally as A(H5N1), on Nov. 9, 2024, when a teen patient in B.C. was placed on life support. The teen needed significant respiratory support, doctors say, then began to improve and was discharged from hospital on Jan. 7.
The B.C. Centre for Disease Control is comparing the genetic features of the teen's avian flu strain with that of a Louisiana patient who died in January.
The U.S. patient, who was over the age of 65 and had underlying health conditions, shared one of the three genetic mutations identified in the Canadian patient's strain. Infectious disease experts have said the mutation could make it easier for the virus to infect humans.
To date, Canadian health officials say there has been no evidence of sustained person-to-person spread of the virus in any cases found in the world.
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Officials track H5N1's pandemic potential
This is the first time that Canada has procured human avian influenza H5N1 vaccines, a PHAC spokesperson told CBC News.
The agency said 60 per cent of available vaccine doses will go to provinces and territories, while the rest will be stockpiled "for national preparedness." It will fall to provinces and territories to decide whether to deploy vaccines when the doses become available "in the coming weeks."
The National Advisory Committee on Immunization, Canada's advisory group on vaccines, has also released preliminary guidance on using the vaccine in a non-pandemic context.
Health officials are watching the pandemic potential of H5N1, as well as other influenza viruses, since when a virus gains the ability to spread easily between humans, it can spark a global pandemic.
Since April, H5 bird flu has infected nearly 70 people in the United States, with one death. Most of those infections have been among farm workers exposed to infected poultry or cows.
Variants of bird flu, or avian influenza, have also killed hundreds of millions of birds around the globe and are now spreading in non-human mammals.
Other countries stockpiling vaccine
European authorities have said genetic mutations, or the mixing of genetic material between viruses, as well as human activities such as urbanization, amplify the risk of virus transmission from animals to humans.
Last month, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said it would rebuild a stockpile of bird flu vaccines for poultry that matches the strain of the virus circulating in commercial flocks and wild birds.
The U.S. had built a poultry vaccine stockpile after major bird flu outbreaks in 2014 and 2015, though they were never used.
Other vaccine manufacturers are also developing bird flu vaccines for humans.
