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Australia :First major case marks swine flu return

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  • Australia :First major case marks swine flu return

    Australia has recorded its first serious case of swine flu infection for the year, with a young woman struck down with the pandemic virus in WA.

    The woman was admitted to a Perth hospital earlier this month, when her deteriorating condition was notified to the surveillance program set up to monitor the spread of the A(H1N1) virus.

    The woman, described as of "child-bearing years but not pregnant", was the first Australian to trigger the monitoring system since December 11 last year.

    She also has an underlying illness which placed her in a leading risk group for a serious swine flu infection, said Associate Professor Paul Kelly.

    "This is our first off the rank (for 2010)," said Dr Kelly, of the National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health at Australian National University.

    "It's the first severe enough to lead to hospitalisation in the group of hospitals that we monitor.

    "As far as I know she is fine."

    Thirteen major hospitals across the country are participating in the Influenza Complications Alert Network, or FluCAN, which Dr Kelly said was set up to track the virus' spread "at the severe end".

    The woman's case was notified to FluCAN on March 12 and it followed an Australian summertime lull serious swine flu infections.

    The hospital surveillance program picked up 560 patients with confirmed swine flu plus another 1,600 with pneumonia last year.

    "(These cases) really dropped off very quickly after October and in November, December there were a few and then nothing through January and February and up to two weeks ago," Dr Kelly said.

    "There was nothing last week either so it might be just a one-off but it is a warning."

    Dr Kelly said the early case was a timely reminder that the swine flu which prompted last year's global pandemic would return to wide circulation in Australia over this winter and possibly again in 2011.

    Australians not yet inoculated against the swine flu should do so, he said, with free vaccines still available at GPs through a federal government initiative.

    The seasonal flu vaccine also imminently available at workplaces and GPs will also offer protection against the swine flu this year.

    "We also need to be alert to the fact that each week tens of thousands of people come into our country from the northern hemisphere which has just gone through its latest influenza season," Dr Kelly said.

    "It is advisable for people to have flu vaccination, especially pregnant women, older people and those with underlying chronic conditions such as lung, heart, liver or kidney disease or cancer."

    The swine flu pandemic started in Mexico early last year and quickly swept the world with 37,000 confirmed cases in Australia.

    Dr Kelly said around 5,000 Australians were hospitalised with the infection, 700 were admitted into intensive care units and 191 died.

    He spoke on Tuesday at the Thoracic Society of Australia and New Zealand's annual meeting, underway in Brisbane.

    Australia has recorded its first serious case of swine flu infection for the year, with a young woman struck down with the pandemic virus in WA.

  • #2
    Re: Australia :First major case marks swine flu return

    As a point of interest, and as we know that flu and transmissibility is affected by temperature, humidity etc the weather in Perth at the moment is as follows:
    Temperature: 29.3?C
    Relative Humidity: 59%
    Dew Point: 20.5?C

    Comment


    • #3
      Re: Australia :First major case marks swine flu return

      #2: temp.

      grassroot speaking,
      as insurged more massive first in a warm environment,
      maybe pflu stil likes more warmer than colder ...
      or maybe it is an omnitemp. bug

      Comment


      • #4
        Re: Australia :First major case marks swine flu return

        The title of the article is not really accurate, and the article is confusing. The writer makes it sound like this Perth case is the first H1N1 case in Oz this year. It's not.

        According to the doctor quoted, it's the first hospitalization in the 13 hospitals monitored by his group. "This is our first off the rank" -- no idea what that means. Must be Australian. But the virus "returns" well before you get the first hospitalization in a monitored hospital. Now how one "marks" the return -- well, I guess that's open to debate. I would mark it by the first confirmed case.

        The good doctor was also quoted as saying: "There was nothing last week either so it might be just a one-off but it is a warning."

        One-off? H1N1? I'd be surprised.

        According to Australia's Health Minister Roxon, there are at least 50 confirmed H1N1 cases in Oz already this year and the flu season is 2 months off. That's confirmed; i.e., tip of iceberg.

        Comment


        • #5
          Re: Australia :First major case marks swine flu return

          Flu season is due to begin there, so an upswing in cases over the coming weeks is a certainty. Underlying levels have been very low there however, during the summer period.

          What is of interest (to me at least) is if the flu season arrives in strength earlier than ususal, it could indicate that this virus still has 'unseasonal' preferences for temp and humidity (IF that happens).

          Agreed hospitalised cases are going to be the tip of any underlying iceberg, but they are the only cases that can be definitively monitored and confirmed - so the numbers that show up in hospitals is of interest as an indication of the general levels of circulation in the population at large. Contrasted with ILI reports of visits to GPs also gives us a measure of severity i.e same as last year, better than last year or worse than last year, and sudden changes in any of these measures could be a flag for inherent change within the circulating virus, which would then need to be investigated.

          So in summary, worth watching the evolution of pandemic H1N1 in this region during its first 'normal' winter in the sourthern hemisphere since its emergence,

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