Swine flu level alert set to go higher

Australia's swine flu alert level is set to be raised another notch as the number of
victims increases across the country, Federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon says.

Ms Roxon said it was inevitable swine flu would spread further, but in most cases it
was not severe.
She said so far seven people had been hospitalised in intensive care from a
confirmed 1,458 influenza A(H1N1) infections in Australia.
Members of an under 21 Australian lacrosse team have become the latest casualties.
They have been quarantined in their South Korean hotel after one player was found to
have an elevated temperature when arriving at Seoul airport.
"As the numbers gradually increase in jurisdictions there will be steps over the
coming days to move to a `consistent' alert level," Ms Roxon told reporters.
"It's inevitable that the disease will spread - that's the nature of this type of
flu - and we know in most cases it will be very mild and people will recover quite
quickly, and often in a number of days and often without any medical intervention."
Twelve new cases of swine flu have been confirmed in South Australia in the past 24
hours.
Fifty-nine swine flu cases have so far been confirmed in SA, with two people - a
48-year-old man and a 60-year-old man - hospitalised in a stable condition.
A 15-year-old boy from Adelaide's Christian Brothers College is among the latest
cases, with all Year 10 students from the college asked to remain at home until
Thursday.
Victoria's alert level is at "modified sustained" while the other states are at
"contain" level.
Compared to Victoria, NSW seems to have got off lightly so far.
NSW Health's director of communicable diseases branch, Dr Jeremy McAnulty, said on
Sunday there was no evidence of widespread community transmission.
Education Queensland has closed Chatswood Hills State School, on Brisbane's
southside, after two students from the school were confirmed as having swine flu. It
will reopen on Wednesday.
St Francis Xavier Catholic Primary School in Mackay will also close from Monday
after a student was identified as a probable case of swine flu.
Meanwhile, a 53-year-old Gold Coast man has been admitted to hospital with swine flu
after returning from Victoria.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has lifted its alert level for the H1N1 virus to
phase six as the world's first influenza pandemic in 40 years continues to spread.
Ms Roxon said health authorities and the government had done their planning to
combat swine flu on the basis that it was more lethal than it has so far proved to
be.
"To date, it has been mild in most people and it has shown us that planning needs to
be done for different types of severity of the disease," she said.
"But I, as health minister, would much rather err on the side of caution and make
sure we are prepared for the most severe disease.
"We can easily adjust to lesser interventions if required but it's much harder to do
the reverse."
Victoria remains the state with the highest number of confirmed victims at 1,111
followed by NSW with 191 and Queensland with 116.
Ms Roxon said it was understandable that South Korea, with only a small number of
swine flu infections, would quarantine the lacrosse players.
"It is a difficult circumstance for young Australians who are wanting to go and
participate in sport overseas but we do need to be aware that many other countries
have very small numbers of this disease and Korea is one of those countries," Ms
Roxon told reporters in Melbourne on Sunday.
"So, it's not surprising that they do want to help contain the disease themselves."
She said she was making sure that officials from her department work with the
Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) to provide any support the team
needed.