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WELLINGTON: The New Zealand and Australian governments said Tuesday they were investigating further possible cases of swine flu – 56 cases and 17 cases respectively – among people who have recently returned from Mexico or the United States.
The New Zealand Minister of Health Tony Ryall said 56 people who had recently returned to New Zealand and had flu-like symptoms were being tested for influenza A, which is linked to swine flu.
"These are people who have been in Mexico or the United States in the last two weeks," Ryall told a press conference.
"It's a time for caution and concern, but not alarm," he said.
It follows a weekend announcement that nine high school students and a teacher who had returned from Mexico had tested positive for influenza A and were likely to have contracted swine flu.
Earlier Tuesday, the ministry said three people from a separate New Zealand school group which visited Mexico had tested negative for influenza A.
Mexico said Monday the number of confirmed and suspected deaths from the flu there had risen to 149 as the number of cases around the globe continued to rise.
The World Health Organisation has raised its flu pandemic alert level from three to four, signalling a "significant increase in risk of a pandemic."
New Zealand Prime Minister John Key said the increased alert level indicated an increased possibility of a pandemic "but it's not a foregone conclusion by any stretch of the imagination."
"From New Zealand's point of view I think we've got a good plan, we're administering that.
"I'm confident that we are doing everything we can."
Swabs from the 10 people who tested positive for influenza A were sent to Melbourne on Monday to confirm whether they have swine fever.
Julia Peters, of the Auckland Regional Public Health Service, said results were not expected until late in the week.
Officials were still trying to contact 18 people who arrived in New Zealand on the same flight from Los Angeles as the school group.
Medical staff were continuing to screen passengers arriving in Auckland who had been in either Mexico or the United States but no suspected swine flu cases had so far been uncovered.
Meanwhile, Australian health authorities said they were investigating 17 possible cases of swine flu.
Health Minister Nicola Roxon said it was "at least possible, if not likely" that cases of the virus would be confirmed in coming days, and Australia's health officials were on high alert.
Five people in Australia, including children, had tested positive to a type A virus - to which swine flu belongs - in the state of New South Wales, and Roxon said they would undergo further tests.
"There are many types of flu strains, just in the course of the flu season, and we need to go through the process to rule out what it might be," Roxon told commercial television.
Two women who fell ill during a flight from Los Angeles to Brisbane had been sent home with Tamiflu, an anti-viral drug, while awaiting results of tests for swine flu, officials said.
They were among ten cases being investigated in Queensland state, where the government had activated its pandemic plan alert.
A further two suspected cases had been reported in the southern island state of Tasmania, and the ill people had been quarantined at home pending the outcome of tests, officials said.
Roxon said clinical staff had been stationed at all the country's international airports, while all airlines operating from the Americas were required to report the health status of passengers before landing.
- AFP/yb
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