Australia`s swine flu tally nears 500

Swine flu cases in Victoria have surged again, adding 89 in one day to push the
national tally close to 500.
And there are fears the number could soar again following Wednesday's State of
Origin series opener at Melbourne's Etihad Stadium, where a near sell-out crowd of
50,000 is expected.
NSW Premier Nathan Rees and senior ministers were briefed last week on the threat of
swine flu infection at the game.
Cancelling the game was discussed but eventually ruled out.
As of Tuesday night, 395 people in Victoria had tested positive, including a
sessional male teacher at Swinburne University's Croydon TAFE campus, which has
about 1,800 students.
The teacher taught a short-course class of six students on May 23 and Swinburne
learnt of the test result last Thursday.
"This teacher is believed to have been exposed to the virus while teaching at a
school in Melbourne's northern suburbs," the university's executive director Michael
Thorne said.
"The teacher has suffered mild flu symptoms but is otherwise well. The Department of
Human Services has contacted the six students who were in the class."
No classes at the campus have been cancelled.
Fourteen Victorian schools have closed, with the latest including Footscray North
Primary School and Meadowglen Primary in Eltham.
Three schools are due to reopen on Wednesday - Canterbury Girls Secondary School,
Peter Lalor Secondary and Roxburgh Park Primary School.
Some 776 tests are still pending in Victoria.
NSW is the next worst-affected state with 64 confirmed cases, followed by Queensland
with 24 cases, South Australia with six, and the ACT with four, while Western
Australia, Tasmania and the Northern Territory all have one case each, according to
federal government figures.
NSW Health says that state has 69 confirmed cases while Queensland Health says it
has 23 cases.
Meanwhile, a cruise ship has been caught up in a second swine flu scare, with New
Caledonian authorities ordering the Dawn Princess to anchor offshore while five
passengers and a crew member are tested.
The ship left Sydney early on May 24 with 1,996 passengers and 850 crew aboard for a
13-day South Pacific cruise which was due to wrap up in Sydney on Friday.
Passengers were scheduled to visit the port of Lifou on Tuesday, but when crew
informed New Caledonian authorities six people on board were suffering flu-like
symptoms, they requested no passengers be allowed to disembark.
The ill passengers and the crew member have been quarantined in their rooms, the
ship's owner, Carnival Australia, said.
The ship had already travelled to ports in Fiji and Vanuatu before arriving at Lifou.
"As part of our standard pre-arrival health reporting procedures, we share with
these authorities incidents of illness on board," Carnival Australia spokesman
Anthony Fisk told AAP.
Officials from New Caledonia have collected swabs from the ill and the samples will
be flown to Sydney and tested before the ship arrives there on Friday.
Four passengers aboard the ship during its previous voyage were tested for swine flu
after it arrived in Sydney on May 23.
They were cleared of the virus, but the testing delayed the departure of the vessel
by seven hours, leaving 2,000 passengers waiting to disembark and about the same
number waiting to board.