Australia's swine flu tally soars to 303

Health authorities are still considering whether to move to the next stage of the
swine flu plan as the disease hit every state and territory on Sunday, with a total
of 303 cases now confirmed.

Australia is currently in the contain stage of the outbreak, meaning there are a
small number of cases and/or a small number of clusters.
The next stage is the sustain phase, which means authorities consider the virus is
established and spreading in the community.
The first confirmed case in Australia of human swine flu - or A(H1N1) - was
announced on May 9, but the number increased rapidly last week with 23 cases on
Tuesday rising to 303 on Sunday. Victoria has been the hardest hit with 252 cases
alone.
"If the increase in numbers continues at the rate that it has, of course an
assessment will be made whether we need to move to the next phase of the disease
plan," federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon said on Sunday.
Ms Roxon said tracing people who had been diagnosed with the virus and those they
had had contact with them would become more difficult as the number of cases rose.
"There is a tipping point at which it won't be possible to continue to do that and
where we can assess that the disease really has become a community disease," she
said.
"Then we'd move to a new phase where all of those efforts go into treatment and
identification of people who are at risk. We're not at that point yet."
Health officials are meeting every day to review the disease.
New Australian Medical Association (AMA) president, Dr Andrew Pesce, will meet the
Commonwealth's chief health officer Jim Bishop this week on a new strategy to help
doctors identify the worst cases of the virus.
"Hopefully, we will have this within the next week, a system whereby doctors have
confidence in picking those cases which are at risk of progressing to more serious
disease, so they can be more aggressively treated earlier," Dr Pesce told reporters
in Melbourne.
Dr Pesce has stressed that most of the swine flu cases in Australia to date were not
cause for panic.
"We want the population to be assured that there is no huge impact in terms of
severe illness at this stage," he said on Sunday.
"It tends to produce minor illness in the vast majority of cases."
Ms Roxon said members of the public should continue with their normal activities,
practise basic hygiene and see a doctor if feeling unwell.
Meanwhile, the Pacific Dawn liner, which had been forced to abort a cruise off
Queensland after a number of swine flu cases were diagnosed, will dock in Sydney on
Monday.
NSW Health officials are awaiting results from 10 suspected cases onboard the P&O
ship before deciding how the passengers will be treated when they disembark.
Passengers will be able to disembark if they test positive, but will be quarantined
for seven days and may be prevented from onward travel, NSW Health says.
Under extra powers from the NSW government, NSW chief health officer Kerry Chant has
the authority to ensure people suspected of having swine flu remain in isolation.
"There are a total 57 confirmed cases of human swine influenza who have been
identified in NSW," Dr Chant said in a statement on Sunday.
"Of these, 46 of the NSW cases have been associated with the Pacific Dawn cruise and
a further 11 associated with overseas travel."
Six more Victorian schools will close from Monday with the state's swine flu tally
surging to 212.
Victorian acting chief health officer Rosemary Lester said people in contact with
confirmed cases were being traced.
"Our team is continuing to work around the clock to do the contact tracing to ensure
that those people who are in contact with the confirmed cases are traced
appropriately, put in quarantine and given the Tamiflu," she said.
And in Queensland, an outbreak in Cairns has forced two schools to close for the week.
A senior Queensland Health doctor were to brief parents of students from both
schools on the situation on Sunday afternoon.
People who have been struck down with the flu are being treated with anti-virals,
such as Tamiflu, and being kept in quarantine.
Ms Roxon said a safe vaccine for swine flu is still about two months away.