Asia stayed on high alert but free of confirmed swine flu cases yesterday, while nearby New Zealand — the only country in the region to confirm the disease — wound back its number of suspected infections.
New Zealand Health Minister Tony Ryall said one traveler who a day earlier was assessed as having swine flu had been removed from the list after further checks showed that person had not been exposed to a high-risk area or to people likely infected with the virus.
Ryall said the government was counting 13 other people as probable cases, though laboratory tests had returned positive for the virus in just three people. Twelve of those were students and teachers in a high school group that returned from Mexico last weekend, and the other was also aboard their connecting flight from Los Angeles.
Testing for swine flu was under way on samples from an additional 104 people who have flu symptoms.
Officials say the swine flu strain in New Zealand is the same as the one believed to have killed 160 people and sickened thousands more in Mexico. A 23-month-old child in Texas became the first US fatality.
Germany and Austria on Wednesday became the latest countries to report swine flu infections, with cases already confirmed in Canada, Britain, Israel, New Zealand and Spain.
The WHO raised its alert level to the second-highest on its threat scale, indicating a pandemic could be imminent.
Asia, so far, has escaped infection though South Korea says it has one probable case, with final test results still coming.
Officials in South Korea, Hong Kong and Australia are testing scores of people with flu symptoms.
Health authorities in South Korea cleared 12 people who were being monitored for possible swine flu, but were still running tests on four more.
In most places, people reporting fever, coughs and aches were being given antiviral drugs that appear to be effective against swine flu and told to stay home.
Indonesia responded to WHO’s decision to raise its alert level Thursday by issuing a travel warning to Mexico and advising citizens against traveling to other countries with confirmed human cases.
“Our top priority now is to prevent the virus from entering Indonesia at all costs,” Indonesian health ministry spokeswoman Lily Sulistyowati said. “We are on a high state of alert.”
The ASEAN said it would call an urgent meeting of regional health ministers early this month to discuss how to deal with the swine flu crisis, but stopped short of convening the leaders’ summit Cambodia’s leader recommended.
“We need common measures to prevent and fight against the fast spread of swine flu,” Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said. “Southeast Asian leaders should have an emergency meeting right now.”
ASEAN says it is ready to quickly tap its emergency stockpile of 1 million courses of Tamiflu and Relenza. Other countries were readying their own stockpiles of the antiviral drugs.
The Philippine health secretary appealed to dozens of legislators to abandon plans to visit Las Vegas to cheer for boxing idol Manny Pacquiao.
In Australia, the government gave health authorities wide powers to contain contagious diseases and yesterday began rolling out thermal scanners at major airports to screen travelers for fever.
The devices were in place in several Asian countries, and doctors board arriving flights in Japan and Taiwan.
Meanwhile, China, which has been criticized in the past for a lack of openness in handling medical crises, adamantly rejected foreign media reports that swine flu originated there.
Chinese health ministry spokesman Mao Qunan (毛群安) lashed out at the unnamed reports, saying: “Their attempts to confuse right and wrong and to create disturbances are aimed at undermining China’s global reputation.”
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