Swine Flu confirmed in NZ
NZPA reports:
Director of Public Health, Dr Mark Jacobs announced tonight that results from some of the Rangitoto College party who tested positive to Influenza A on Sunday, have also tested positive for Swine Flu H1N1.
Results from three of the samples were received earlier this evening from the World Health Organization regional laboratory in Melbourne and all tested positive for the same strain of Swine Flu. Testing continues on a fourth sample.
On the basis of these results, we are assuming that all of the people in the group who had tested positive for Influenza A have Swine Flu. As a result we are continuing with the current treatment which has been based on this assumption.
As they say in Dad’s Army, “Don’t Panic”
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Tags: swine flu
April 28th, 2009 at 9:59 pm
“Don’t Panic”
Not going to
April 28th, 2009 at 10:01 pm
I can’t wait to buy the cheap pork.
April 28th, 2009 at 10:06 pm
Well said D4J, as I just texted my boss, Great news, we can kill the opposition, Swine flu is here!!! YEEEE HAAA!!! Enough of the pork from off shore!!! And oh how much meat you get that comes from off shore that you will never know!! GRRRR
April 28th, 2009 at 10:13 pm
Well Mark Wheldon puts it into perspective: a short-term problem in the tourism sector.
I hope he’s right.
April 28th, 2009 at 10:18 pm
To explain a little, nearly every asian restaurant you eat at buys off shore Pork because it’s cheap.
But if you see it in the kitchen, oh my god it’s ugly.
April 28th, 2009 at 10:41 pm
I would suggest actually not panicking as opposed to the Dad’s Army version! Look viruses are scary things but the flu kills around 500,000 people world wide a year and this just seems like a new version of the flu. It’s not quite ebola.
April 28th, 2009 at 10:44 pm
New Zealand is world famous because of this. The BBC has been running various news items about it in the UK. Mark Sainsbury had a chat via phone, also got to see Tony Ryall give a press conference noting the fact that the tests had be be shipped to Melbourne to get the final results.
New Zealand usually only get coverage in the UK press everytime some idiot kills another British Tourist.
April 28th, 2009 at 10:45 pm
I feel for the folks diagnosed with this flu. They must be feeling more than a little frightened just now.
On a related matter, my daughter was on a flight from Chile which arrived at Akl at 04:00 on Saturday. A couple of her friend got colds just prior to flying. On girl’s parent decided to take her daughter to the local GP this morning just be sure… to found them ushered in via a back entrance and greeted with full-house of mask wearing staff. I know it’s precautionary… but the girl and her mum were pretty alarmed!
April 28th, 2009 at 10:49 pm
According to the story on Stuff the people who have tested +ve have recovered already
So all the hype about the sword of Damocles hanging over their heads while awaiting the test results was hype.
They’ve had it, recovered and are now presumably immune – they are better off than the rest of us maybe.
Its a treat in store for us – maybe.
April 28th, 2009 at 10:55 pm
Getstaffed, they’ll be fine. Early detection has prevented the spread, and the course of Tamiflu will rid the sufferers from the vector. Best thing to do with flu, stamp on it. Due to avian flu over reaction, there’s something like a million doses of Tamiflu stockpiled. She WILL be right. That said, I’d be a bit more nervous about South America.
April 28th, 2009 at 10:56 pm
Everyones waiting for the next Spanish flu of 1918-1919. You know the one where it killed more people than World War One did and in a considerably shorter timeframe? Sort of puts Man in his place as to where he fits into the scheme of things.
Strange how some people think that Man is all that and can actually influence Global Warming.
Given the choice of determining where Man sits between that of a God wandering freely among the stars or an animal scratching in the dirt for an existence I’d alway point to the latter.
April 28th, 2009 at 11:00 pm
Guess who was a former president of GILEAD SCIENCES, patent-holder of Tamiflu, and remains a major shareholder? Donald Rumsfeld, also Gilead’s chairman from 1997 to 2001. The value of his holdings is estimated at between $5 million and $25 million.
April 28th, 2009 at 11:00 pm
Guess it will be difficult to rent 12 Monkeys from the video store for a while.
April 28th, 2009 at 11:05 pm
Guess it will be difficult to rent 12 Monkeys from the video store for a while.
You could always buy it on trademe
That way you wouldn’t have to getting it back to the video store when you a quarantined with pig flu
April 28th, 2009 at 11:20 pm
This kind of thing is a concern. While it is technically “just another kind of flu”, the problem is not that it’s a flu, it’s that it’s a flu our immune systems haven’t dealt with before. Unlike the Spanish flu, however, we’ve got things like the UN’s World Health Organisation coordinating responses, and anti-viral drugs like Tamiflu if necessary, plus an assortment of other advantages over 100 years ago – better nutrition, better hospitals, better hygiene, better education.
The people most at risk are elderly and infants, as is the case with health in general. It has a 7% mortality rate at the moment, over the whole spread of ages, so probably way lower for most people and way higher for babies and the elderly.
April 28th, 2009 at 11:23 pm
“The people most at risk are elderly and infants,”
Really? They said on the weekend that one worry was the Mexican deaths include many healthy young people, which is what the Spanish Flu did too.
April 28th, 2009 at 11:27 pm
Nature always seems to strike in the most populated areas.
Very strange really.
April 28th, 2009 at 11:32 pm
Hope they were not rooting pigs in Mexico. As those rich North Shore boys are prone to do.
April 28th, 2009 at 11:33 pm
I don’t think it will be like the Spanish flu Reid since sanitation and the supporting infrastructure has improved greatly over the century, if a pandemic was ever to occur i would doubt Tami flue would fix it, you would probably find the vaccines coming directly from a government department.
lol Toad … i guess we found the culprits then.
April 28th, 2009 at 11:41 pm
Ryan, as Ried said, that is one of the concerns about this flu, in that many of the victims in Mexico have been young and healthy. This is something that occurred in the 1918 pandemic. Here is an excerpt (p.23-24) from Rice.
Rice, G. W. (2005). Black November – The 1918 influenza pandemic in New Zealand. Canterbury University Press.
Otherwise, it is a bit like Y2K. Nothing happened then because there was so much work put in the 5-10 years leading up to 2000. Likewise, with SARS and avian influenza, there has been a truckload of international work done on pandemic influenza planning over the last 5 or more years. The world as a whole has never been more prepared for a pandemic. Not to say it won’t happen, but we’re certainly ready for it.
April 28th, 2009 at 11:42 pm
Toad – none of my mates on the shore have ever touched Sue Bradford (here or in Mexico)
you should check with that westie Tim Shadbolt
April 29th, 2009 at 12:44 am
So public health is now off the banned words list I take it?
April 29th, 2009 at 12:57 am
“Patrick Starr
Toad – none of my mates on the shore have ever touched Sue Bradford (here or in Mexico)”
What about Paula Bennett?
April 29th, 2009 at 7:09 am
Crikey.
April 29th, 2009 at 7:45 am
“The name of the game is to slow transmission until a well-matched vaccine can be made and distributed. I am fairly optimistic we can do that”. In the northern hemisphere the flu season will soon end. However, “Timing is terrible for people in the Southern Hemisphere — places like New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, parts of South America. They are just coming into their flu season.”
– Dr. Ira Longin, a specialist in the mathematical and statistical theory of epidemics
Not the best for us…
April 29th, 2009 at 7:49 am
After years of battering Labour over its failure to contain and control the varroa mite, it must be National’s turn to recieve a thrashing for failing to contain the spread of swine flu. The Governments response, through the Health Ministry has been TOO SLOW. It’s in. Let’s see how Tony Ryall manages THAT issue, should the outbreak prove serious.
April 29th, 2009 at 7:53 am
Get back to your school PTA management gladstone.
April 29th, 2009 at 8:13 am
it’s just comforting to know the neighbourhood has “racer – the earth hour window peeper” so we can keep tabs on who’s rooting pigs
April 29th, 2009 at 8:13 am
Whoo hoo apocalypse time!
I wonder if there will be zombies… or will greens be the first to go.
April 29th, 2009 at 8:14 am
Jesus, maybe I should start smoking again so that I’m less healthy for when I catch it.
April 29th, 2009 at 8:19 am
If the disease is really bad and ends up killing around 1 billion people, maybe the earth will be saved from the pending doom of global warming and peak oil.
April 29th, 2009 at 8:20 am
Good point Angus, it might get Al Gore!
Lemonade.
April 29th, 2009 at 8:26 am
Good Q&A with a virologist for those who want to know more: http://blog.ted.com/2009/04/qa_with_virus_h.php
April 29th, 2009 at 8:58 am
So let me get this right….
Normal flu (for want of a better word) kills tens of thousands in Mexico every year and New flu kills 150 or so. No-one dies outside Mexico and gets better.
Yet it’s the end of the world.
There must be something missing to this story or has everyone gone friggin loopy?
April 29th, 2009 at 9:14 am
gladstone (19) Vote: 1 1 Says:
April 29th, 2009 at 7:49 am
“After years of battering Labour over its failure to contain and control the varroa mite, it must be National’s turn to recieve a thrashing for failing to contain the spread of swine flu. The Governments response, through the Health Ministry has been TOO SLOW.”
Please tell us
(a) precisely what could/should have been done quicker, given that no one knew for sure that it was H1N1 until the Melbourne lab reported back last evening?
(b) what should have been done differently?
April 29th, 2009 at 9:16 am
Ahh Patrick Starr, the resident kiwiblog christian apologist, and genocide fan, I’d like to extend a nice warm “Fuck You”, this morning, wanker.
April 29th, 2009 at 9:18 am
Oh my, racer has a severe case of satanic fever.
April 29th, 2009 at 9:20 am
Oh my, D4J is a cock.
April 29th, 2009 at 9:22 am
Shouldn’t you be at school racer or should I say piggery?
April 29th, 2009 at 9:24 am
What was this in response to?
Sorry.
I mean:
To what was this in response?
April 29th, 2009 at 9:24 am
Shouldn’t you be at court or something?
April 29th, 2009 at 9:26 am
Court is cancelled as the judges all got swine fever after F4J top dressed the courthouse.
April 29th, 2009 at 9:40 am
oh racer … so much anger … so little brain
April 29th, 2009 at 10:07 am
I’m not sure what criteria you are using to decide that the response to swine-flu was too slow. Your statement just comes across as polemical.
In terms of Varroa, I’m not sure what your background in the issue is. I will note that once it first appeared, a proposal to use (non-chemical) biological control- with say phoresic pseudoscorpions- was put forward. Pseudoscorpions have limited the impact of Varroa in both South Africa and India in bee-hives.
I also note that this was rejected, and curiously enough, the only expert on false-scorpions in the country was not asked for any input on the merits of this. I know this because I am the only expert. So the decision on control measures was made from a position of ignorance.
Interestingly, trials of pseudoscorpions as a biological control measure have recently started. Something has obviously changed.
April 29th, 2009 at 11:23 am
clithonid – the pseudoscorpions were indeed a promising control agent, but as you say, have limited effectiveness. I presume the present Minister has given the go-ahead for the release, or at least testing, of those agencies?? Do you know? Containment was the issue that Anderton was lambasted for and your worthy biological control agents don’t really fit that category, I feel. Never-the-less, good luck. You’d be a little worried by the destruction of the Research and Development funding, (to be consistant).
With regard swine-flu, containment and/or exclusion is surely the primary aim. Those two have been breached already and the response, especially in having samples tested has been too slow. A virus loke this one move far more quickly than a parasitic mite, wouldn’t you say? Or are we only criticising the previous government for tardiness?
April 29th, 2009 at 2:58 pm
H1?
She’s gone, and still she’s causing world-wide trouble!
April 29th, 2009 at 3:41 pm
Noskire: “Guess who was a former president of GILEAD SCIENCES, patent-holder of Tamiflu, and remains a major shareholder? Donald Rumsfeld, also Gilead’s chairman from 1997 to 2001. The value of his holdings is estimated at between $5 million and $25 million.”
Noskire, your post went over everyone’s heads. I said the same thing in another post. I haven’t checked out Gilead’s stock prices but I can imagine they were going down before the “swine flue” hit in mexico just like they were dropping before the bird flu hit. Donald Rumsfield is a very strong man politically and has influences all over the world. He is, I might add, one of the most dangerous men in the world. I was listening to an american news channel, Lehrer report, and they didn’t have the details of those that died in mexico, but yet everyone is starting to panic. The news is roaring “jump” and the public is asking how high. I suppose people get all the information they need from the news. I am angry because now Rumsfeld will make another 20 million or so and the world will be a worse place because of it.
April 29th, 2009 at 4:04 pm
I read that this strain of Swine Flu might stick around for a long time (might impact sick leave across the board if it becomes common). I expect they will get on top of it over the months (as they learn more about it and hopefully prevent mutations) but is annoying as it’s yet another strain of flu that can lay you low for 2 weeks or more or potentially be worse…
I think the health authorities are doing all the right things here in NZ (despite them not being onto it in other areas, most of the comments here is right Avian flu prepared us for this), was pleased that we are a first world country in some aspects (despite the usual waiting lists for elective surgery) i.e. going code yellow and processing everything at the airports pretty smoothly.
Sure it is not the Ebola virus and not like something in the movies but pleased I live here instead of Central America as the regular flu that has been going around the office the last 2 weeks is bad enough without getting another one after it…
April 29th, 2009 at 8:16 pm
gladstone- you misunderstand. Bee-hives that had an integral population of pseudoscorpions controlled varroa. It was quite effective. The option to innoculate hives could have expanded this. But the point is that policy towards Varroa was timid, slow and badly informed- the decision not to look further into biological control with pseudoscorpions was just an example of this. I’m sorry, but criticism of the Government’s reaction was justified.
I’m afraid I am not at libery to outline where, and with what species, biological control is being currently being trialled. But it is based on native species (possibly less effective than introduced options however).
As to swine-flu, you still haven’t gone beyond assertions that control has been mismanaged. I have read Macdoctor’s blog, and believe that there have been some lapses, specifically with the other passengers on NZ1 and directions to people showing symptoms. Nonetheless, Macdoctor is normally treated as a right-wing blog, so I don’t believe this supports your case that the National Government has been given a free pass.
There are some other distinctions I regard as relevant. Varroa jacobensi had already devastated bee-hives in other countries. The effect of Varroa was fairly predictable. For swine flu, the spread and lethality is not known (spawning wide variation in death estimates and consequences). Determining the appropsiate precautionary response level is not as clear cut.
April 30th, 2009 at 10:12 am
I came across this website:
http://www.swine-flu-info.co.nz
which seems to have some good, non hysteria inducing information on the swine flu outbreak in NZ!