B.C. teen no longer critical with avian flu, has been taken off oxygen [Video]

We’re learning more about the B.C. teenager who became the first critically ill pediatric patient with avian influenza in North America earlier this fall, including some details about her recovery.

The new information was published in a case summary as a letter to the editor of the New England Journal of Medicine on Tuesday, signed by multiple doctors from the B.C. Centre for Disease Control, BC Children’s Hospital and Public Health Agency of Canada.

Prior to the publication of the letter, B.C.’s Ministry of Health had refused to provide updates on the teen’s status or their case “unless there is a need from a public health perspective to do so.”

According to the case summary, the patient was a 13-year-old girl with a history of mild asthma and an elevated body mass index (BMI) who showed up at a B.C. emergency room with a fever and conjunctivitis in both eyes on Nov. 4.

She was …