Australia`s swine flu cases up to 209

Australia has 209 identified cases of the swine flu, the nation's chief medical
officer Jim Bishop says.
Victoria has the majority of the cases, with 138 people in the state diagnosed with
the virus.
An infected person from the ACT was aboard the P&O Pacific Dawn, which docked into
Sydney on Monday, Professor Bishop said.
The cruise had been to Vanuatu and New Caledonia.
The Pacific Dawn arrived in Brisbane on Saturday morning after management cancelled
a cruise to the Great Barrier Reef.
Three crew members have tested positive to the swine flu but Professor Bishop said
no passengers from that cruise have so far been identified with the virus.
"The passengers are testing well at the moment," he told reporters in Canberra on
Saturday.
Prof Bishop said pregnant women, people with respiratory problems, such as asthma or
chronic airways disease, and diabetics were particularly susceptible to swine flu.
Swine flu numbers were likely to rise during winter, he added.
"We'll see this flu becoming more of a dominant flu and what we'll see is it will
start to increase in numbers rather like the seasonal flu," Prof Bishop said.
"And like the seasonal flu, everyone knows how to deal with the flu.
"It's turning out to be, in Australian hands, quite a mild disease."
As of Saturday night, there were about 15,500 cases of swine flu worldwide, with 99
deaths recorded, Prof Bishop said.
"Speaking to our colleagues around the country, it's quite clear what we've got to
focus now on is to understand who's likely not to do so well, and that will be a
very small number of cases, but they're the ones we want to jump on and make sure
they are treated appropriately."
When asked if it was possible people could die in Australia from swine flu, Prof
Bishop said the nation was in a good position to contain the disease.
"I think any flu of any sort is both a mild disease and a dangerous one. I think
ordinary seasonal flu is dangerous," he said.
"If we jump on cases we think are high risk ... I think we've got every chance of
looking after people well but I can't predict the future.
"We know there's a high death rate in Mexico and there's a lower death rate in the
US ... and we know there are no deaths in Europe, where it got to first."
Prof Bishop said delaying the entry of swine flu into Australia had been "helpful".
"Whatever happens now, we're better prepared than a month ago," he said.
The human strain of swine flu was likely to be less virulent than the avian strain.
"These viruses have drift, they do change their make-up. That's why we have to be
quite vigilant about it but the broad understanding of H1 viruses is that they tend
to mutate more slowly than H5 viruses," Prof Bishop said.
"While I don't believe we can be complacent in any way, we do have time and what
we've got time for is to obviously look after the population, recognise the people
who might have a poor experience with this virus."
The Australian government has asked biopharmaceutical company CSL to develop a swine
flu vaccine.
The doses would provide cover for up to 10.5 million people.
Prof Bishop said medical staff including doctors had been given personal protective
masks and access to flu drugs Tamiflu and Relenza.
The government has issued a quarantine pack available through Centrelink if people
with flu-like symptoms need to stay home.