Swine flu 'has officially arrived' in Australia(转自WA news)

monaperthwa

SWINE flu has officially arrived in Australia with confirmation of the first human-to-human transmissions, experts say.

Health Minister Nicola Roxon today said new cases should be expected in keeping with expert predictions the virus would eventually side-step border control efforts and spread within the community.

Australia's swine flu alert level has been raised from delay to containment.

Ms Roxon said raising the alert level enabled the Government to ensure it acted appropriately as the H1N1 virus spreads in Australia.

"We will continue border protection to stop people coming into Australia with swine flu," Ms Roxon said.

"The contained phase is not the top phase; there are three more levels after that.

"This doesn't mean each and every state will be undertaking the same response. It provides us with flexibility for social distancing measures such as school closures, which we have already seen in South Australia and Victoria."

[glow=255,red,2]Confirmed H1N1 cases increased to 13 today, with two of these considered the first person-to-person transmissions on Australian soil.[/glow]

[glow=255,red,2]There are eight cases in Victoria, two in New South Wales, two in South Australia and one in Queensland.[/glow]
A 17-year-old boy from Melbourne's northern suburbs and a 15-year-old Adelaide girl had no traceable contact with any of the existing swine flu carriers, or contact with recent international travellers.

The girl's school has been closed for a week

Sydney University's Head of Clinical Research Professor Robert Booy said containment efforts and a community-wide personal hygiene crackdown would dictate how quickly the virus would spread.

He said it was no surprise that the deadly disease has arrived in Australia.

"Given two billion commercial air travellers a year it was always going to come within the month," he said.

Professor Bill Rawlinson, from the Department of Virology at Sydney's Prince of Wales Hospital said: "In a public health sense ... we now think that swine flu is here."

The experience from overseas was an average rate of 1.5 new infections for every existing case, every two to three days.

"Over the next few months the number of people affected will rise dramatically," Prof Booy says.

"You'd be hesitant to shake hands with people at the moment, but you can still smile at them.

"And if people have got classical symptoms such as fever plus any respiratory symptoms - especially a cough or a runny nose - then you shouldn't come to work."

Efforts to make a matched vaccine were continuing but it would not be available until the end of August, at the earliest.

Adults and older people were thought to be naturally more resistant to swine flu which has tended to infect more children and teens.

The virus' spread across the world had also revealed it was not as deadly as initially feared, Prof Booy says, but while it behaved very similarly to "standard garden-variety influenza" it should not be underestimated.

Prof Booy says about 2500 Australians die annually from ordinary seasonal flu and swine flu could "double the annual death rate, so it's not trivial".

People most at risk are those over 75, the very young, pregnant women, those with a compromised immune system or other illness such as heart, lung or kidney disease.

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