Flu scare hits south

Christchurch people with symptoms

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Seven Canterbury people face an anxious wait amid fears they have contracted the deadly swine flu.

At least 75 people across the South Island, most of whom were passengers on an Air New Zealand flight from Los Angeles carrying 10 infected Auckland teenagers, are in voluntary quarantine.

The seven suspected Canterbury cases all have flu symptoms.

Canterbury Medical Officer of Health Dr Ramon Pink said all seven would be given Tamiflu medication and had been tested to determine whether they had the killer flu.

The initial test results should be back within 48 hours.

The H1N1 strain of pig flu has killed more than 100 people in Mexico and infected about 1600.

Health authorities in New Zealand are on high alert, with passengers arriving from the United States and Mexico being screened for flu symptoms.

Pink said 37 people in Canterbury who were on the flight from Los Angeles with the Auckland teenagers had contacted health authorities.

All those on the flight had been told to go into quarantine and would be given a five-day course of Tamiflu, Pink said.

The families of those showing symptoms, and those in close contact with them since the flight, would also receive a course of Tamiflu, he said.

Tests would be necessary to determine whether passengers had influenza A or an identical strain to the deadly swine flu.

Twenty people in the upper South Island are under watch by the Nelson-Marlborough Public Health Service.

Ten were on Flight NZ1 with the Rangitoto College pupils, eight were on a subsequent flight (NZ5) from Los Angeles and two were travellers from the US or Mexico.

Fourteen people from Otago and Southland were in quarantine, as were four people from the West Coast, health officials said.

Christchurch Hospital had set up an isolation ward called the "red stream" for people admitted to hospital with suspected swine flu, Christchurch infectious disease physician Alan Pithy said.

Health officials have put the potential influenza epidemic status at yellow, just below the code red response phase.

Prime Minister John Key said yesterday that the Government's response to the outbreak had been "swift, thorough and appropriate for the level of risk".

Professor Kurt Krause, director of the Webster Centre for Infectious Diseases at Otago University, said it was too early to predict whether the swine flu outbreak would become a pandemic. The response from New Zealand health authorities, so far, had been appropriate.

"Certainly, we've learnt a lot from Sars (severe acute respiratory syndrome) and avian flu, and this has helped prepare us for this weekend's events," he said. "It's encouraging that the young people in the US who were infected are getting better.

"The reported mortality in Mexico is clearly a matter of concern, but with 1600 reported cases, it seems very likely that many thousands of cases will have occurred making the actual percentage of deaths very low."

- By KIM THOMAS, The Press