A Canadian who died after traveling home from Beijing was infected with H5N1 avian flu, Canadian media reported Wednesday — making the person the first to have been reported to have died in North America from the virus, whose slow spread has worried health experts for more than a decade. The flu rarely passes from person to person, but health officials are tracking down everybody the flu victim came in contact with to be sure. "This is a very rare and isolated case," said the top doctor for the province of Alberta. Officials wouldn't identify the traveler or their gender but said the person was admitted to a hospital on Jan. 1, shortly after traveling to China, and died on Jan. 3. Canada's health minister said he did not expect more cases of the H5N1 flu in Alberta, despite the death.
