Posted: 28 May 2009 2246 hrs
A medical virologist at workSYDNEY - A cruise ship carrying three crew infected with Influenza A (H1N1) was Thursday turned away from a north Australian port as authorities commissioned 10 million doses of vaccine and confirmed cases rose to 147.
The P&O liner Pacific Dawn was asked to cut short its trip to the Great Barrier Reef and northern Queensland, and passengers would not allowed to disembark, state premier Anna Bligh said.
"This is a great pity for the passengers but this is the right thing to do for public health," Bligh said.
P&O owner Carnival Australia said the ship would no longer visit any north Queensland ports "because there are unique concerns about the risks of quarantinable diseases in that region".
It would return to Sydney via Brisbane on Monday, three days ahead of schedule, Carnival chief executive Ann Sherry said.
Australian Health Minister Nicola Roxon said the ship would dock at a major port "where appropriate public health support will be available".
Officials said the ship was forced to make an emergency stop at Airlie Beach late Thursday after a child suffered a serious arm injury and required hospital treatment.
Though the child and accompanying family were not suffering flu-like symptoms, Queensland Health said they would be quarantined for seven days before being permitted to return home.
Roxon earlier said the ship, now carrying 2,000 passengers, would be declared a quarantine zone if necessary.
"Certainly there will be no hesitation from our government or from the states and territories to take the advice of the health officials if they thought that was necessary," she told public radio.
The Pacific Dawn has already been blamed for a spike in Australian A(H1N1) flu cases after authorities last week allowed 2,000 passengers to disembark in Sydney despite a suspected flu outbreak aboard.
At least 20 people were subsequently diagnosed with the virus and their presence in the community is believed to have added momentum to A(H1N1) flu's spread in Australia, where there are now 147 cases nationwide.
In the state of Victoria alone, the number of confirmed infections almost doubled to 96 from the 53 declared by the state government earlier on Thursday.
Officials have already tightened the rules applying to cruise ships following the bungle in Sydney, treating them all as potential A(H1N1) flu sites and keeping passengers aboard until they have been cleared.
Roxon said four people had been hospitalised with the virus and the government had commissioned pharmaceutical company CSL to provide 10 million doses of a vaccine as it became available in coming months.
"Based on the current advice this is sufficient to contain the spread of the disease," she said.
Experts fear the impending southern hemisphere winter and flu season could bring a cross-breeding of the A(H1N1) and seasonal flu to create a strain resistant to anti-viral drugs.
"The human H1N1 Brisbane strain, which has been circulating in Australia for the last few years, is already largely resistant to Tamiflu," said Queensland medical association chief Mason Stevenson.
"Any cross-reactivity between the swine H1N1 bug and the human H1N1 bug will transfer this resistance."
The global A(H1N1) flu death toll has exceeded 100, with one new fatality reported in the United States and four more in Mexico, the two countries where the first outbreaks were reported.
Prior to the latest North American deaths, the World Health Organization (WHO) said 13,398 people in 48 countries had been infected with the A(H1N1) virus since it was first uncovered last month.
- AFP/ir
From ChannelNewsAsia.com; see the source article here.
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