Posted: 22 May 2009 1820 hrs
A school is closed due to students contracting H1N1 flu in Melbourne
SYDNEY: Australia upped its pandemic threat level on Friday, invoking sweeping powers allowing for the closure of schools, public places and major events as the number of confirmed Influenza A (H1N1) flu cases reached 12.
A 10-year-old girl became the country's first case of human-to-human transmission after contracting the disease from a classmate who fell ill upon returning from a family holiday to the United States.
Two teenagers, one in Melbourne and another in Adelaide, were also diagnosed with the virus without having travelled overseas or come into contact with an identified case, prompting Canberra to escalate its pandemic management plan.
Health Minister Nicola Roxon said the shift to the "containment" phase gave the government greater scope to try to control the spread of the disease.
"It provides us with flexibility for social distancing measures such as school closures, which we have already seen in South Australia and Victoria," Roxon said.
"The contained phase is not the top phase. There are three more levels after that," she added.
The alert level was raised following a meeting of the Australian Public Health Committee, and came as five new cases of the virus were confirmed, including the 10-year-old.
"We do seem to be moving into a new phase of more widespread transmission in Australia," Roxon said.
A 25-year-old man who flew into Melbourne from Los Angeles Tuesday was diagnosed with H1N1 flu, while a 17-year-old boy, also from the southern city, was confirmed to be carrying the virus.
A teenage girl from Adelaide became South Australia state's first confirmed case, and her mother, 40, was late Friday found to be suffering from H1N1 flu, taking the total number of cases to 12.
Her young brother had tested negative but was displaying flu-like symptoms and would be tested again, health officials said.
Both their schools had been shut for a week as a precaution, and classmates had been prescribed the anti-viral drug Tamiflu.
Authorities were trying to ascertain how the Adelaide and Melbourne teens had contracted the disease, Roxon said.
Neither had been overseas or had known contact with identified cases, and intensive tracing of their movements was now under way, she said.
"Clearly these developments overnight are a cause for concern, particularly the first known case of human-to-human transmission and, of course, now two cases... that don't have any history of travel or contact with confirmed cases," Roxon said.
"There is no cause for alarm but we do need to treat this as a serious matter," she added.
More than 11,000 cases and 85 deaths have been recorded since the outbreak of A(H1N1) influenza emerged in Mexico and the United States a month ago, and the world remains at flu alert level five, signalling an "imminent pandemic". -
AFP/ms
From ChannelNewsAsia.com; see the source article here.
A school is closed due to students contracting H1N1 flu in MelbourneSYDNEY: Australia upped its pandemic threat level on Friday, invoking sweeping powers allowing for the closure of schools, public places and major events as the number of confirmed Influenza A (H1N1) flu cases reached 12.
A 10-year-old girl became the country's first case of human-to-human transmission after contracting the disease from a classmate who fell ill upon returning from a family holiday to the United States.
Two teenagers, one in Melbourne and another in Adelaide, were also diagnosed with the virus without having travelled overseas or come into contact with an identified case, prompting Canberra to escalate its pandemic management plan.
Health Minister Nicola Roxon said the shift to the "containment" phase gave the government greater scope to try to control the spread of the disease.
"It provides us with flexibility for social distancing measures such as school closures, which we have already seen in South Australia and Victoria," Roxon said.
"The contained phase is not the top phase. There are three more levels after that," she added.
The alert level was raised following a meeting of the Australian Public Health Committee, and came as five new cases of the virus were confirmed, including the 10-year-old.
"We do seem to be moving into a new phase of more widespread transmission in Australia," Roxon said.
A 25-year-old man who flew into Melbourne from Los Angeles Tuesday was diagnosed with H1N1 flu, while a 17-year-old boy, also from the southern city, was confirmed to be carrying the virus.
A teenage girl from Adelaide became South Australia state's first confirmed case, and her mother, 40, was late Friday found to be suffering from H1N1 flu, taking the total number of cases to 12.
Her young brother had tested negative but was displaying flu-like symptoms and would be tested again, health officials said.
Both their schools had been shut for a week as a precaution, and classmates had been prescribed the anti-viral drug Tamiflu.
Authorities were trying to ascertain how the Adelaide and Melbourne teens had contracted the disease, Roxon said.
Neither had been overseas or had known contact with identified cases, and intensive tracing of their movements was now under way, she said.
"Clearly these developments overnight are a cause for concern, particularly the first known case of human-to-human transmission and, of course, now two cases... that don't have any history of travel or contact with confirmed cases," Roxon said.
"There is no cause for alarm but we do need to treat this as a serious matter," she added.
More than 11,000 cases and 85 deaths have been recorded since the outbreak of A(H1N1) influenza emerged in Mexico and the United States a month ago, and the world remains at flu alert level five, signalling an "imminent pandemic". -
AFP/ms
From ChannelNewsAsia.com; see the source article here.
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