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H7N9 virus
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Canada's chief public health officer Gregory Taylor says it is likely the two cases were exposed to a common source, rather than one having been infected by the other.

Husband of Vancouver area woman with bird flu also contracted it

The husband of a Vancouver-area woman who was diagnosed last week with bird flu after returning from a trip to China through Hong Kong has also tested positive for the virus, health officials there confirmed.

H7N9 virus

The husband of a Vancouver-area woman who was diagnosed last week with bird flu after returning from a trip to China through Hong Kong has also tested positive for the virus, health officials there confirmed.

The couple in their 50s began feeling sick days after returning home in the western British Columbia province.

Tests confirmed the first human case of H7N9 bird flu in North America in the woman on Monday. Her husband's diagnosis was confirmed three days later. "Since both cases became symptomatic one day apart, it is likely they were exposed to a common source, rather than one having been infected by the other," said Canada's chief public health officer, Gregory Taylor.

The couple arrived back in Vancouver on Air Canada Flight 8 on January 12. Canada's Public Health Agency stressed that the patient had "recently returned to Canada from China". Flight 8 departs from Hong Kong.

Neither patient required hospitalisation, and both are recovering in self-isolation at home from their illness, said officials.

During an outbreak in China two years ago there were fears it could mutate to become easily transmissible between people, threatening a global pandemic.

But Chinese officials and the World Health Organisation have said there is no evidence of sustained human-to-human transmission, despite occasional instances of apparent infection between family members. The virus first infected three people in China in March 2013. Last year it infected 453 people, killing 175 of them, according to the WHO.

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Husband joins wife with bird flu
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