Swine flu risk for half of NZ population

BARRY HARCOURT/The Southland Times

BLESS YOU: Southland Girls' High School year 7 students know that good cold and flu hygiene is nothing to be sneezed at. Pictured are 11-year-olds Sophie Cook (left), Zoe Dawson, Maiah Hegarty, Deanna O'Regan and Julia Harvey, with teacher Christine Willis.

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Half the population is still at risk of another outbreak of swine flu (H1N1) and 2010 could be nearly as deadly as last year.

Southland was one of the regions worst affected by the H1N1 virus last year and steps are being taken to ensure public safety as the annual flu season gets under way.

The Kleenex Sneeze Safe initiative was seized on by schools yesterday and girls at Southland Girls' High School were quick to catch on to the message.

Using water spray bottles and glitter on their hands, students learned how easily infected residues could be passed from one person to another.

Children carry the highest risk from seasonal flus and are also more likely to be exposed to someone with the flu because of the communal nature of schools.

They are being encouraged to sneeze and cough into a tissue and then dispose of the tissue and wash their hands.

If there are no tissues available then trap the sneeze in the inner elbow or with two cupped hands over the mouth and nose.

Canterbury Health associate professor of virology Dr Lance Jennings said the general public needed to adopt good hygiene habits permanently, not only to avoid the seasonal flu but to avoid any deadly pandemic in the future.

Avian influenza (bird flu) was still capable of causing a major worldwide pandemic, even though it still did not transfer easily between animals and humans, Dr Jennings said.

That virus has killed 60 per cent of the people who have so far contracted it.

"All these viruses that are emerging, we should not be complacent. They are continually evolving."

It was estimated that 30 per cent of the New Zealand population contracted swine flu H1N1 last year and about 50 per cent of the population was still at risk – more than enough for another pandemic.

"Young people died from that pandemic. That is devastating when you get a mother or a child dying shortly after childbirth. That is devastating for families," Dr Jennings said.

The outbreak was not expected to be as bad this year but it could reach a similar level, he said.

- © Fairfax NZ News