New Zealand expects big rise in swine flu cases
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) - New Zealand expects a big increase in swine flu cases in the coming months, a health chief said Sunday, as infections from the virus continued to climb across the Asia-Pacific.
New Zealand was the first country in the region to announce a confirmed case in late April, but health authorities say 213 of its 258 cases have been recorded in the past seven days.
Public Health Director Dr. Mark Jacobs said most cases have been mild to moderate, but the country is likely to see a big increase in cases in the coming months. It has another 728 suspected cases, he said.
No deaths have been reported, but a 30-year-old woman remains in critical condition in the capital, Wellington.
Hong Kong, meanwhile, confirmed 20 more cases of swine flu, taking its total to 255.
The Department of Health said late Saturday that 15 of the new infections were domestically transmitted, including seven students and a teacher at local schools.
The Education Bureau said three more secondary schools will suspend classes for two weeks after students there tested positive for the virus.
China’s state broadcaster said 58 more people were confirmed with swine flu on Sunday, bringing the total on the mainland to 414. It said the new infections included the first reported in Hebei province, which surrounds Beijing, but gave no other details.
South Korea reported 15 more cases – 13 South Koreans and two Americans – bringing its tally to 105.
Philippine Health Secretary Francisco Duque III announced 36 new swine flu cases, raising the country’s total to 428. All the infections were mild, and 339 have fully recovered, he said.
A World Health Organization statement on Sunday confirmed Fiji’s first case of swine flu.
Fiji became the third South Pacific island nation to record its first infection within a week, following Samoa and Papua New Guinea.
The 36-year-old Fiji resident was tested on Thursday a few daysafter returning from the Australian city of Melbourne. Australian authorities on Sunday listed a 26-year-old Aboriginal man who died in the southern city of Adelaide on Friday as a “suspected” swine flu death. Although the man tested positive for the virus on Thursday, authorities doubt it killed him.
“He had a number of pre-existing chronic diseases in addition to being a confirmed case” of swine flu, the Health Department said in a statement.
Australia’s swine flu tally rose by 44 in one day to 2,420 Sunday.
In Malaysia, a Health Ministry official said the country has ordered the first school to close amid eight new cases, bringing the country’s total to 50. Two of the new cases are students at the school.
WHO has declared swine flu a pandemic. As of Friday, it said more than 44,200 cases had been reported worldwide with 180 deaths, mostly in Mexico and the United States.
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