Australian swine flu cases rise to 31

Unauthorised swine flu alert posters are not helping federal government efforts to
manage the disease's spread, Health Minister Nicola Roxon says.
Ms Roxon said she had received reports that fake posters, purporting to be from the
Department of Health and Ageing and the US Centres for Disease Control and
Prevention, had appeared in NSW recently.
News of the posters, which claim that particular areas are swine flu affected, came
as Australia's total number of confirmed cases rose to 31 on Tuesday morning.
Ms Roxon said the public should be aware that the A(H1N1) virus does not exist in
specific public spaces and was passed on through human and animal contact.
"Obviously these are not official government communications," Ms Roxon told
reporters in Canberra on Tuesday.
While it was the "Australian way" to have a joke about serious matters, she said the
posters were a hindrance.
"This doesn't actually help our efforts to keep the disease contained, it doesn't
particularly help people stay well informed," Ms Roxon said.
Last week, false swine flu alert billboards appeared in Sydney and Melbourne as part
of a publicity stunt for the new series of ABC's hit show The Chaser's War on
Everything.
Ms Roxon said she didn't know who was behind the recent posters but her department
wasn't looking to prosecute their distributors yet.
"It's too early for us at this stage," she said.
Following Ms Roxon's press conference, further Australian cases of swine flu were
confirmed.
A 32-year-old woman and her eight-year-old daughter from Clifton Hill in Melbourne's
inner north are two of the latest cases, Victorian Health Minister Daniel Andrews
said.
On Monday, test results for a nine-year-old boy who arrived in Sydney on flight QF12
from Los Angeles on Sunday returned positive for swine flu.
NSW Health said on Tuesday further testing had found that three members of the boy's
family had now tested positive for human swine flu as well as a fourth, unrelated,
passenger who has also tested positive.
The ACT has also joined the list of states and territories struck by the virus after
a Canberra man who returned from the United States on Sunday was diagnosed with it
on Monday.
"He's only got a mild illness," a spokeswoman for ACT Health Minister Katy Gallagher
told AAP.
"His symptoms only occurred on Sunday afternoon which is why he wasn't picked up at
the airport."
The 41-year-old has been provided with antiviral medication and quarantined at home
for seven days.
So far there have been 16 cases of swine flu recorded in Victoria, nine in NSW, two
in South Australia and Queensland, one in Western Australia and one in the ACT.
Three schools in Victoria have been closed, as have two in South Australia.
Ms Roxon said 55 people were being tested for the virus around the country.
"We are moving into a different phase here in Australia; the disease will be
spreading quickly," she said.
"We need to put all our effort into making sure that is a small number, as small as
we can keep it."
Every state and territory was asking children who have been in seriously swine flu
affected countries to be kept away from schools for seven days, Ms Roxon said.
Health declaration cards were now also being used on all cruise ships docking in
Australia after two children aboard the Pacific Dawn cruise ship that arrived in
Sydney on Monday contracted A(H1N1).
All other passengers who were on board the ship with them have been asked to
self-quarantine for a week and offered antiviral medication.