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| Down Under |
| Australian Swine Flu cases double within 24 hours |
| 2009-05-27 |
| THE number of confirmed cases of human swine flu in Australia has doubled to 61 in just 24 hours, federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon says. As of midday (AEST), Victoria had 33 cases, New South Wales 18, Queensland five, South Australia three, Western Australia and the ACT one each, she said. At the same time yesterday, the count stood at 31. Ms Roxon said based on overseas experience, she expected the toll to increase significantly over the next 48 hours. "Obviously we now know that this disease is highly infectious and the community does have to prepare itself for there to be a significant in the numbers of cases confirmed particularly in the coming days," she said. "We can expect over the next 48 for this to be a busy period (of confirmations)." "Look at countries like Japan, and Canada and the UK - a couple of cases given the way of these clusters turns into a larger number fairly quickly and I know the community needs to be prepared for that." She said Australia was now just entering its normal flu season, and what would happen with the seasonal flu and swine flu was uncertain. "No one is entirely sure what consequences that will have for the potential for those two flus to combine or for one or the other to be the one that dominates." She said all people who had come down with swine flu so far had experienced only mild cases. "Unlike normal flu, we do know that this flu has a quite hard edge to it, that is a small proportion of cases can be much more severe and we have seen that in some of the deaths that have occurred in, for example, the United States," she said. "That's why the Government still believes there is no cause for alarm or panic, but it is important for the community to do what it can to assist us in reducing he spread of this disease." |
| Posted by:Oztralian |
| #3 Well, hell, Chuck & Sea - you can't expect them to ignore the really important health threats in favor of preventing contagious diseases, now can you? |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2009-05-27 15:36 |
| #2 And transfats, Chuck. Don't forget the transfats! :: shudder :: |
| Posted by: Seafarious 2009-05-27 14:17 |
| #1 Failed to handle an outbreak on a docked cruise ship correctly. It has been a very long time since public health professionals had to deal with anything other than teen pregnancy and gun violence. |
| Posted by: Chuck Simmins 2009-05-27 14:11 |