From http://www.news.com.au/perthnow/story/0,21598,25391437-948,00.html
FIVE Australians will be tested for swine flu with the results expected by the week's end, health authorities say.
NSW chief health officer Kerry Chant said 17 people with influenza-like illnesses had been followed up by NSW public health units today.
Dr Chant said five of those people - four in Sydney and one on the Central Coast - would now be tested for swine flu with, results expected by the end of the week.
"We are saying that they are suspected cases," Dr Chant said.
"But obviously we are acting in a precautionary way and asking them to remain isolated."
Meanwhile, two people are being tested for swine flu at Brisbane's Prince Charles Hospital, Queensland Premier Anna Bligh said.
Ms Bligh said the tests would take about 12 hours to complete.
The new potential cases follow the clearance of a 50-year-old Gold Coast woman who recently returned from the US, and a 30-year-old Brisbane woman back from Mexico.
Ms Bligh urged anyone recently returned from the Americas who became ill within seven days to see their doctor.
Queensland has about 20,000 doses of the Tamiflu anti-viral tablet, while the Commonwealth holds a much larger stock.
There have been no confirmed cases of the swine flu in Australia so far.
However, a high-ranking Australian health official believes potentially deadly swine flu will reach Down Under.
"I think we probably will eventually have a case in Australia because we're part of a global environment and it's so quick to get on a plane," Queensland Health chief health officer Jeanette Young said.
Dr Young said measures were being taken to prevent the disease reaching Queensland.
"We are keeping a very close watching brief on what's going on overseas to work out what we need to do here," she said.
"I have put people on alert in Queensland to be prepared for anything.
"We are ready to activate border control measures should we be advised to do so by the Commonwealth."
But one of the nation's top influenza experts says the deadly virus is probably already here.
"It's very hard to screen for influenza coming into the country because what we do know is that people can be infected and not show the signs of disease in the early stages, but can be spreading the disease now," virologist Alan Hampson said.
Emergency departments have been put on alert and doctors asked to report any likely symptoms.
Symptoms of swine flu are similar to regular human flu and include fever, cough, sore throat, body aches, headache, chills and fatigue. In some cases people can experience diarrhoea and vomiting. Pneumonia and respiratory failure have been reported with swine flu infection in people.
"The most worrying fact is that it appears to transmit from human to human,'' said WHO spokesman Thomas Abraham.
These features, along with the fact that young healthy adults have fallen victim to the flu in Mexico, and not the very old or very young, have given rise to fears of an epidemic or even a pandemic.
AMA president Rosanna Capolingua says while the new virus poses a serious risk, the nation's health system is equipped to deal with it.
"There is certainly communication networks, there is a store of Tamiflu, the antiviral agent, that's been kept in Australia as well," Dr Capolingua told ABC Radio.
"There's been suggestions of fever tents, how to decamp patients from primary care into isolation areas, how the hospitals would cope.
"There's been quite a lot of planning done in the past and preparation for any of these sorts of circumstances."
Australia's chief medical officer, Jim Bishop, last night urged people to be vigilant but not alarmed as authorities around the world rushed to put in place measures to curb the spread of the outbreak.
Spread
Up to 86 people have died and 1400 people have in Mexico where the virus originated.
The World Health Authority declared the outbreaks a "public health emergency of international concern", after the virus was confirmed in 16 Mexican states as well as the United States and Canada.
Schools have been shut down, Sunday masses cancelled and the US embassy has suspended visa-processing services for travel from its neighbour.
Health Authorities in New Zealand have quarantined a school group of 25 from Auckland after they returned from Mexico on Saturday with flu-like symptoms.
Ten of the students have tested positive for influenza A and are believed "likely" to have contracted swine flu, New Zealand Health Minister Tony Ryall said late yesterday. Three more students have now been quarantined with signs of the virus.
Suspected cases of swine flu are being tested in England, France, Spain, New Zealand, Scotland, the Middle East and Asia.
US expecting deaths
A top official at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said she feared some people in the United States would die as the swine flu spreads.
The agency's Dr Anne Schuchat said officials were preparing for a possible spread of the illness beyond the 20 cases confirmed in the United States
"It is clear that this is widespread. And that is why we have let you know that we cannot contain the spread of this virus," Dr Schuchat said.
"I do fear that we will have deaths. It's very hard to predict exactly," Dr. Schuchat said. "We all need to all be prepared for change."
The US has reported 20 confirmed cases of the virus in New York, California, Texas, Kansas and Ohio. But so far no fatalities have been reported.
Canada has reported six confirmed cases of the virus.
Pandemic Potential
The outbreaks do not constitute a pandemic by WHO definitions, but has the potential to evolve into one, leaving airports across the world on alert.
Melbourne's World Health Organisation Collaborating Centre on Influenza - one of four across the globe - is readying itself to receive a sample of the virus, with New Zealand announcing it would send its test results to the group.
The centre was "right in the middle of this", Professor Bishop told The Australian.
Centre director Anne Kelso said the discovery and spread of the new A/H1N1 virus was "unusual", noting the last outbreak of swine flu to attract international concern was in 1976.
"This is a new virus that has a new combination of genes from two different swine sources, and humans and birds ... it is complicated," she said.
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade updated its travel advisory for Mexico, warning visitors to prepare for health checks at the nation's international airports.
AAP, The Australian, Reuters
