H1N1 flu cases on the rise in Australia, Taiwan
Posted: 22 May 2009 1245 hrs

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	Related News • Mexico lifts flu bans, as world puzzles over virus • Taiwan reports new H1N1 flu case, says mass outbreak unlikely • Japan reports 292 H1N1 flu cases, PM urges calm • Young girl is first case of H1N1 flu in Philippines

SYDNEY: Australia and Taiwan have confirmed their third and eleventh H1N1 flu cases respectively, as authorities urged calm and advised against overseas trips.

A 23-year-old Taiwanese woman was running a fever after arriving from San Francisco early Thursday and tested positive for A (H1N1) influenza, said the Centres for Disease Control.

She was the second H1N1 flu case in an overseas Taiwanese student, prompting the education ministry to suspend a school trip it sponsored to Japan and advise students against visiting places with higher levels of infection.

The ministry also urged overseas students with flu symptoms to seek immediate treatment before returning home for the summer holidays.

Health authorities were tracking down passengers who sat near the student on an EVA Air flight for screening.

The island's first confirmed case was an Australian doctor who arrived by plane from New York via Hong Kong earlier in the week.

Australian authorities were attempting Friday to trace the movements of two people confirmed to have contracted the H1N1 flu without having travelled overseas, as the number of cases hit 11.

Four new cases of the virus were confirmed overnight and on Friday, including a 10-year-old girl who was a classmate of a Melbourne boy who fell ill, along with his two brothers, after returning from a US holiday last week.

A 25-year-old man who flew into Melbourne from Los Angeles Tuesday had also been diagnosed with the 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 authorities were trying to ascertain how she and the Melbourne teen had contracted the disease, said national Health Minister Nicola Roxon.

Neither had been overseas or had known contact with identified cases, and intensive tracing of their movements was now under way, she said.

"There is no cause for alarm but we do need to treat this as a serious matter," Roxon said.

Authorities have warned community transmission of the highly infectious influenza was "inevitable," and Roxon said the confirmed cases could rise on an almost hourly basis.

Alan Hampson, a consultant to the World Health Organization, said there was a high probability the virus would continue to spread, but Australia's pandemic plan did not yet need to move from the "delay" to "containment" phase.

Such a shift would allow for the closure of schools and other public places such as cinemas and nightclubs and cancellation of major sporting events.

"Containment would be in the situation where we actually do see community-based transmission and certainly we're far from that at the moment," Hampson told state radio.

"That's not to say it won't happen at some stage down the track, but right at the moment, (there is) a very small number of cases in Australia."

Meanwhile, Japan on Friday eased quarantine and immigration measures aimed at controlling the spread of the H1N1 flu, saying the virus was not as virulent as first feared.

The government also downgraded an earlier warning against non-essential travel to Mexico, the worst-hit nation, instead urging caution when visiting the country.

The number of confirmed A(H1N1) infections in Japan has risen to 299, but there have been no fatalities and most cases have been mild, health officials said.

"The new influenza has strong similarities to seasonal flu," Health Minister Yoichi Masuzoe told reporters.

The new virus is highly contagious but many people recover without falling seriously ill and anti-flu drugs have proven effective, he said.

Japan will end on-board quarantine checks for flights from Mexico and North America unless advance notice is given that some passengers appear ill. Also, people seated close to an infected passenger will no longer be quarantined.

The government has scrapped tighter visa rules for Mexicans, allowing them to get visas on arrival again.

In the worst-affected prefectures of Osaka and Hyogo in western Japan, people who have a fever after returning from overseas can now go to regular hospitals and not just special "fever clinics" set up to contain the new flu.

More than 4,800 schools and kindergartens, mostly in western Japan, remained closed to slow the spread of the virus, the education ministry said.

Japan stepped up health controls at its airports and booked 500 hotel rooms near Tokyo's Narita International Airport in late April due to fears of a pandemic. It also told its own nationals to consider leaving Mexico.

The H1N1 flu virus has claimed 85 lives worldwide with more than 11,000 infectionsconfirmed, according to the World Health Organization.

The latest confirmed cases in Japan include a South Korean who arrived from the United States. He had been due to continue to South Korea but is now quarantined near Narita airport, the health ministry said.

- AFP/yb