( CNN ) -- Canadian health officials confirmed Wednesday that a resident from Alberta has died from H5N1 avian flu , the first case of the virus in North America . Canada 's Health Minister , Rona Ambrose , said the infected individual had recently traveled to Beijing . The Canadian case also is the first case of H5N1 infection ever imported by a traveler into a country where the virus is not present in poultry . No such H5N1 viruses have been detected in people or in animals in the United States . Ambrose stressed that Canadians should not be worried about contracting the virus . Hong Kong on high alert after first human case of H7N9 bird flu . `` As Canada 's Health Minister I want to reassure the public this is an isolated case , '' Ambrose said . `` The risk of H5N1 to Canadians is very low . There is no evidence of sustained human-to-human transmission . It is also important for Canadians to know that this case is not part of the seasonal flu which circulates in Canada every year . '' According to the World Health Organization , most avian flu viruses do not cause disease in humans . However , some like H5N1 are zoonotic , which means they can infect humans and cause disease , even death . The H5N1 virus has been primarily found in poultry in parts of Asia and northeastern Africa , where some people have contracted the virus and died . China reports first H10N8 flu death . According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention , most of the 648 human cases of H5N1 infections that have been detected since 2003 have occurred in people with direct or close contact with poultry . The CDC considers that the health risk to people in the Americas posed by the detection of this one case is very low . The U.S. agency is not recommending that the public take any special actions regarding H5N1 virus in response to the Canadian case . What is avian flu ?
The Beijing resident who died of H5N1 had recently traveled to Alberta , health minister says . The death was `` an isolated case ; '' Canadians at little risk , Ambrose says . H5N1 is found mostly in parts of Africa and northeastern Asia . Most people who have died of the virus had close contact with poultry .