Posted: 20 June 2009 1429 hrs
A student has her temperature taken at a clinic in Melbourne, Australia.
SYDNEY: Australia's government on Saturday called for calm over the spread of H1N1 flu a day after the country recorded its first death related to the virus.
Health Minister Nicola Roxon stressed that while a young Aboriginal man from a remote outback community was suffering from the virus when he died Friday, it remained unclear whether it was H1N1 flu or another illness that killed him.
"Whilst this is the first recorded death in Australia of a person who had the H1N1 flu, it is unclear whether that was a direct or contributing cause to the death," Roxon said.
"We do need to remind the community that for the vast majority of people who contract this flu over the coming months, it will be very mild," she told reporters.
Australia has so far registered no H1N1 flu deaths despite counting 2,376 cases of the A(H1N1) virus, making it the Asia-Pacific region's worst-hit country and the fourth most affected nation in the world.
The 26-year-old man, who had "a number of major medical conditions" died in hospital in the southern city of Adelaide after being brought in from a remote indigenous community in Western Australia, officials said.
Results from the man's autopsy are expected to be released next week.
Authorities on Saturday raced to find out how the H1N1 flu reached the isolated Kirrikurra community in the Western Desert where the dead man lived, which has been put under lockdown for a week to prevent the disease spreading.
"We presume that the transmission to this person occurred somewhere in this region, but we do have to track the movement of this person over the last three weeks to make sure," said Western Australia's chief health officer Tarun Weeramanthri.
Two nurses will be sent to Kirrikurra early next week to distribute anti-viral medication and assess the situation in the community.
The H1N1 flu has spread rapidly in Australia, which has entered the southern hemisphere winter, helping persuade the World Health Organisation to declare the first global pandemic in 40 years.
The A(H1N1) virus has infected more than 44,000 people around the world, resulting in 180 deaths since late March, WHO figures show.
- AFP/yb
From ChannelNewsAsia.com; see the source article here.
A student has her temperature taken at a clinic in Melbourne, Australia.SYDNEY: Australia's government on Saturday called for calm over the spread of H1N1 flu a day after the country recorded its first death related to the virus.
Health Minister Nicola Roxon stressed that while a young Aboriginal man from a remote outback community was suffering from the virus when he died Friday, it remained unclear whether it was H1N1 flu or another illness that killed him.
"Whilst this is the first recorded death in Australia of a person who had the H1N1 flu, it is unclear whether that was a direct or contributing cause to the death," Roxon said.
"We do need to remind the community that for the vast majority of people who contract this flu over the coming months, it will be very mild," she told reporters.
Australia has so far registered no H1N1 flu deaths despite counting 2,376 cases of the A(H1N1) virus, making it the Asia-Pacific region's worst-hit country and the fourth most affected nation in the world.
The 26-year-old man, who had "a number of major medical conditions" died in hospital in the southern city of Adelaide after being brought in from a remote indigenous community in Western Australia, officials said.
Results from the man's autopsy are expected to be released next week.
Authorities on Saturday raced to find out how the H1N1 flu reached the isolated Kirrikurra community in the Western Desert where the dead man lived, which has been put under lockdown for a week to prevent the disease spreading.
"We presume that the transmission to this person occurred somewhere in this region, but we do have to track the movement of this person over the last three weeks to make sure," said Western Australia's chief health officer Tarun Weeramanthri.
Two nurses will be sent to Kirrikurra early next week to distribute anti-viral medication and assess the situation in the community.
The H1N1 flu has spread rapidly in Australia, which has entered the southern hemisphere winter, helping persuade the World Health Organisation to declare the first global pandemic in 40 years.
The A(H1N1) virus has infected more than 44,000 people around the world, resulting in 180 deaths since late March, WHO figures show.
- AFP/yb
From ChannelNewsAsia.com; see the source article here.
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