Kiwiblog

The Ministry of Health has not updated its website yet, but I understand they have just gone from Code Yellow to Code Red for Swine Flu, according to an e-mail to Auckland University staff.

The codes are:

Code White is information/advisory only, used in the planning stages of pandemic preparedness and for notification to the health sector of areas of concern overseas.

Code Yellow is a standby phase, used to alert the health sector when there has been a significant development in the virus overseas, or single isolated cases in New Zealand.

Code Red is the response phase, used to alert the health sector that they should activate their response plans.

Code Green is to notify the health sector to standdown response and move into the recovery phase.

So it is all on, as more and more schools get infected.

Stuff reports that Nick Smith does not have swine flu, and so presumably all of the Cabinet are safe.

So this means ambitious backbenchers can stop texting John Key with their CVs.

I heard a rumour very early this morning that Nick Smith was in isolation, as he had Influenza A and it is possible he may have Swine Flu as he has been overseas on his honeymoon.

I forgot about the story until 10 minutes ago and finally rang up the Beehive to ask if it was true, and found the story had broken a few minutes ago on Stuff. If I had drunk less, I could have had a scoop!

We obviously wish Nick a speedy recovery, and hopefully he does not have Swine Flu.

If he does, then it is possible he has infected the Cabinet with it. And in Mexico it has a 6% mortality rate, and we have a Cabinetof 20 – so hey Nathan Guy may be getting a promotion from Chief Whip earlier than he thinks

Okay joking about it is a bit too bad taste – especially if anything bad does happen.

Talking of swine fly, I see we are being told we should no longer be calling it Swine Flu and the WHO wants to have people refer to it as “2009 H1N1″. Yeah right – that will catch on.

Hat Tip: Ethical Martini and xkcd.com.

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”

Boy it would be tough enough being of shcool age, and having the normal flu. But having to tell all your mates you have “swine flu” would just be too much. You’ll end up nicknamed Porky Pig or something for the rest of your school years.

Kidding aside, the swine flu looks pretty nasty, and hopefully those infected will be fine, as they took Tamiflu in time.

Once upon a time I would get excited when NZ got struck by a flu virus. People down the corridor would hear me yell out that one good flu virus and one cold winter could knock NZ First out of Parliament. I may even have calculated how severe it needed to be to achieve this. But now they are actually out of Parliament, there is no real upside to the flu.