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Asia on alert over swine flu threat - screening, precautions, etc.

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  • Asia on alert over swine flu threat - screening, precautions, etc.

    HONG KONG : Asian health officials went on alert and urged the public to be vigilant amid the threat of a flu strain that has killed up to 81 people in Mexico and sparked warnings of a potential pandemic.

    Governments across the region, which has in recent years been at the forefront of the SARS and bird flu epidemics, urged the public, and especially travellers, to be on guard for symptoms of the new multi-strain of swine fever.

    In New Zealand, a 25-strong school group was quarantined pending the results of medical tests after returning from Mexico with flu-like symptoms, local health authorities said.

    Results were expected later Sunday.

    In Japan, airports tightened checks on passengers arriving from Mexico, with quarantine officials giving out face masks and using thermography imaging cameras to screen for passengers with a fever.

    Health officials handed out leaflets to those headed for Mexico and the United States, urging them to wear face masks and wash their hands regularly to prevent infection from the new multi-strain swine flu.

    A Japanese health ministry hotline for worried members of the public attracted some 400 calls on Saturday alone, according to a ministry official.

    Agriculture minister Shigeru Ishiba appealed for people to stay calm, noting that the flu so far appeared to be confined to Mexico and the United States, and underlining that the drug Tamiflu seemed to provide effective treatment.

    "There is no risk of infection now," Ishiba said Sunday, appearing on a talk show on the private Asahi television network. "Should you be infected, Tamiflu is very effective. We have enough stockpiles in Japan."

    Like most governments in the region, Australia urged people who had recently returned from Mexico and had developed flu-like symptoms to seek medical advice.

    "Australia has good communicable disease surveillance and control systems in place to detect and respond to outbreaks of illness," a health department spokeswoman said.

    South Korean health, agriculture and foreign ministry officials held an emergency meeting to discuss the issue, while in China, the health ministry said it was "paying close attention" to the situation.

    China and Hong Kong bore the brunt of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in 2003 that killed nearly 800 people, most of them in Asia, bringing air travel here to a near-standstill and battering the region's economies.

    The same year, the H5N1 strain of bird flu re-appeared in Asia.

    It has since killed 257 people, according to the World Health Organisation, and officials have long warned that the virus could become a global pandemic if it mutates into a form that is easily transmissible between humans.

    The Chinese government was Sunday studying inspection and quarantine measures to guard against the spread of the latest flu strain, officials said.

    In Hong Kong, health officials said checks at border crossings had been stepped up and that airlines had been asked to broadcast messages on all flights coming direct from affected areas.

    The World Health Organisation warned Saturday that the virus had the potential to become a pandemic, labelling the current outbreak "a public health emergency of international concern."

    It said it was recommending that all countries "intensify surveillance for unusual outbreaks of influenza-like illness and severe pneumonia".

    Mexican officials said the death toll from the new strain had probably risen to 81, while 10 people were believed infected in the United States.

    Highlighting the potential role of international air travel in spreading the virus, a British Airways cabin crew staff member was being treated in a London hospital with flu-like symptoms after arriving on a flight from Mexico City.
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    "The next major advancement in the health of American people will be determined by what the individual is willing to do for himself"-- John Knowles, Former President of the Rockefeller Foundation

  • #2
    Re: Asia on alert over swine flu threat - screening, precautions, etc.

    Manila...
    -----------

    Quarantine screening of US passengers orderedBy

    JENNY F. MANONGDOApril 26, 2009, 5:01pm

    Health Secretary Francisco T. Duque III yesterday ordered the Bureau of Quarantine (BQ) to screen passengers coming from the US for flu symptoms following the outbreak of swine flu in Mexico that has downed more than 1,300 individuals and killed 81 since April 13.

    World Health Organization (WHO) authorities on Saturday warned that the flu strain has pandemic potential, which means it could infect people in large proportions across the globe.

    National Epidemiology Center (NEC) director Dr. Eric Tayag said Duque has ordered the BQ to check US inbound passengers for flu symptoms that are similar to symptoms exhibited by persons infected with swine flu. These include fever, body pain, runny nose, cough, sore throat, and in confirmed swine flu cases, diarrhea. He said this is imperative since swine flu can spread through the air.

    "We have a thermal screening system at the airport. This will be used by the BQ to check passengers coming from the US if they have flu," Dr. Tayag said in an interview.

    Duque has also ordered the immediate inventory of stocks of the antiviral drug Tamiflu. "This is a disease among pigs and it is not supposed to jump easily to a human. But in the US, the virus has jumped from an infected person to another person and this is what makes it alarming," Dr. Tayag said, describing the international public health concern that has sent the president of Mexico to assume emergency powers also last Saturday.

    Aside from Mexico, cases of swine flu was also detected in Kansas City, Texas, California and in New York City. WHO Director General Dr. Margaret Chan ordered all WHO member-nations to step up their disease surveillance system and to report to WHO all cases of death that are suspected to be due to swine flu.

    According to WHO, Swine influenza (A/H1N1), or ?swine flu,? is a highly contagious acute respiratory disease of pigs, caused by one of several swine influenza A viruses. The virus is spread among pigs by air and direct and indirect contact, and asymptomatic carrier pigs exist. Outbreaks in pigs occur year round, with an increased incidence in the fall and winter in temperate zones. But WHO experts said it is safe to consume pork as the virus can be killed by proper cooking.

    "Swine influenza has not been shown to be transmissible to people through eating properly handled and prepared pork (pig meat) or other products derived from pigs. The swine influenza virus is killed by cooking temperatures of 160?F/70?C, corresponding to the general guidance for the preparation of pork and other meat," experts said.

    WHO officials said the potential of a virus to become a pandemic depends on whether it can spread from person-to-person. If a swine virus established efficient human-to human transmission, it can cause an influenza pandemic. The impact of a pandemic caused by such a virus is difficult to predict: it depends on virulence of the virus, existing immunity among people, cross protection by antibodies acquired from seasonal influenza infection and host factors. Swine influenza viruses can give a rise to a hybrid virus by mixing with a human influenza."

    In Geneva, Swizerland, WHO warned countries around the world Saturday (Sunday in Manila) to be on alert for any unusual flu outbreaks after a unique new swine flu virus was implicated in possibly dozens of human deaths in North America.

    Chan said the outbreak in Mexico and the United States constituted a "public health emergency of international concern."

    The decision means countries around the world will be asked to step up reporting and surveillance of the disease, which, she said, had "pandemic potential" because it is an animal virus strain infecting people

    "The next major advancement in the health of American people will be determined by what the individual is willing to do for himself"-- John Knowles, Former President of the Rockefeller Foundation

    Comment


    • #3
      Re: Asia on alert over swine flu threat - screening, precautions, etc.

      if this virus gets into india or pakistan,with those countrys having so many poor it would be catastrophic,with there medical records.

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