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Pilots on frontline of Australian swine flu fight

NEWS.com.au

April 29, 2009 02:48pm


View H1N1 Swine Flu in a larger map. Map and related content supplied by outside source.
Swine flu airport / AP
Flu fears ... pilots cover their faces with masks to protect themselves against swine flu / AP
In pictures: Masks on as swine flu spreads around the world

PILOTS on all international flights into Australia must now identify any of their passengers showing flu symptoms.

Federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon has outlined Australia's updated response the worldwide outbreak of swine flu, saying it "can be in place by late this afternoon''. 

Additional clinical treatment areas  will be opened at airports but it was unclear when they would be available. 

Four million health declaration cards will be distributed to airports around the country but a decision will be made later on whether they will be given to all inbound passengers.

Arrangements are also in place to deploy thermal scanners to eight of Australia's international airports.

"They are in transit to airports today and all arrangements are in place for AQIS (Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service) to be standing by to receive that equipment and to use it if that becomes necessary,'' Ms Roxon said.


Ms Roxon said the number of Australians aboard a flight from Mexico to New Zealand with three schoolchildren who contracted the swine flu has been revised down to 15 from 22.

Of those Australians, only two showed any flu-like symptoms but had been cleared by their doctor.

"The reason this number is different is that the authorities couldn't ascertain from the names provided by the New Zealand authorities which were families and which were individuals," she said.

The Australian passengers included four people from NSW, three from Victoria, one from South Australia and seven Queenslanders.

"Two of the passengers in Queensland were showing some flu symptoms but have subsequently been cleared by their GP,'' Ms Roxon said.

"My advice is none of the other passengers that have been contacted so far are showing any flu symptoms but obviously this process is ... still ongoing and a number of people are receiving anti-virals as a precautionary measure.''

Ms Roxon said there were no confirmed cases of swine flu in Australia.

The Government had taken additional steps to make swine flu a quarantinable disease, Ms Roxon said. 

Worldwide, the swine flu crisis deepened with the death toll now above 150 in Mexico and at least 16 countries reporting confirmed or suspected infections.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) warned meanwhile that the virus is now too "widespread to make containment a feasible" strategy.

Mexico, epicentre of the outbreak, said 159 people were now believed to have died from swine flu with more than 1600 people suspected to be carrying the virus. Twenty of the deaths have been confirmed by laboratory tests. WHO says its has only confirmed seven swine flu deaths.

The number of confirmed cases in the United States more than doubled to 65 and Britain and Spain both said they had registered patients sick with swine flu, the first cases in Europe.

Canada has 13 cases and Israel and New Zealand confirmed their first swine flu casualties.

While countries tightened borders, the WHO said research since the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak in 2003 in Asia had shown that border controls were of little use halting the spread of such a virus.

"Border controls do not work. Screening doesn't work," WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl said in Geneva.

"If a person has been exposed or infected... the person might not be symptomatic at the airport," he said. "We learn as we go on. SARS was a huge learning experience for all of us."

WHO assistant general secretary Keiji Fukuda warned the virus would be impossible to contain.

"I think that in this age of global travel where people move around in airplanes so quickly, there is no region to which this virus could not spread," said Mr Fukuda.

The WHO has upgraded its pandemic threat level to four, which is two steps short of declaring a full-blown pandemic. A phase four alert means human-to-human transmission is causing outbreaks in at least one country. 

Symptoms of swine flu are similar to regular human flu and include fever, cough, sore throat, body aches, headache, chills and fatigue. In some cases people can experience diarrhoea and vomiting. Pneumonia and respiratory failure have been reported with swine flu infection in people.  

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all this talk of the flu i'm feeling sick as a pig

(Read More)

porky pig

Comments on this story

porky pig Posted at 2:41pm today

all this talk of the flu i'm feeling sick as a pig

anne of worried of Newcastle Posted at 2:30pm today

HAS ANYONE BOTHERED TO GOOGLE TAMI FLU PSYCHOSIS? The thing is that this drug can have BAD side effects especially in children. Some are self injury,delusions,etc. Take a look google schizophrenia.com or tami flu side effect because no-one should be taking this really,well especially small children or people with mental,depression problems.

NicW of Australia Posted at 2:11pm today

Dudes - more people have died from bumble bee stings in the last 24. There seems to be a pathalogical need for crisis. Millions of children are living in poverty, thousands die every day from malnutrition and needless violence. Isn't THAT an emergency worthy of world wide hysteria!?!? ps, Nicola Noxon is out of her depth....

Murpho Posted at 2:07pm today

I bet that this is a government controlled disease to kill off most of the worlds population for economic reasons.

Yuey of Perth Posted at 1:55pm today

Swine Flu? Great, we already have a bush pig epidemic in this country and now this !

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