Influenza A (H1N1) Swine Flu - Update 106 | infonews.co.nz New Zealand News

Public awareness around swine flu remains high, with the Ministry of Health website and Healthline experiencing a higher than usual level of interest.

Dr Fran McGrath, Deputy Director of Public Health says last month, there were just under 180,000 unique visits to the Ministry website, mostly for information on swine flu. This is up from about 80,000 visits at the same time last year.

"We know that the majority of people visiting our website are searching out information related to swine flu. We've been working hard to ensure our website is as useful and up to date as possible. People are able to find information about what they can do to stop the spread of flu, like covering coughs and sneezes, washing and drying hands thoroughly, and staying home if they're sick. The website also provides information in a number of languages."

Dr McGrath says Healthline continues to receive a high number of calls from people with influenza-like illness (ILIs). "Over the last week approximately 1,500 calls on average per day have been answered on the Healthline number."

The percentage of callers receiving assessment by a nurse, has increased from 69 per cent in May, to 82 per cent over the first 12 days of July. Around half of these callers have flu-like symptoms.

Calls often involve nurse assessment of a number of household members and can take up to 15 minutes. Consequently, the average length of calls has increased by 20 per cent.

Callers waiting to be assessed by a nurse, may need to wait over five minutes at times, and are encouraged to stay on the phone to speak to a nurse.

Healthline is being backed up by the Ministry's Wanganui Contact Centre, where enquiries about influenza from callers without symptoms have been handled since 12 June. Additional nurses are now working at the Contact Centre to increase capacity for assessment of callers with flu-like symptoms.

PlunektLine has been helping by taking Well Child calls from the Healthline number since mid June.

An advisory from the World Health Organization (WHO) now includes morbid obesity as a risk factor for severe illness and death from infection from novel influenza. WHO says although the severity of the pandemic is currently considered to be moderate with most patients experiencing uncomplicated, self-limited illness, some groups such as pregnant women, and people with asthma and other chronic conditions such as morbid obesity appear to be at increased risk of severe disease and death from infection.

Dr McGrath says, "There is a lot still to be learned about the Novel Influenza A (H1N1) 09 swine flu virus and the clinical picture of the illness caused. New Zealand has too few cases yet for there to be enough evidence to see whether morbid obesity on its own is an independent risk factor for New Zealanders, however we will be considering the latest advice from WHO."

Latest Numbers

The cumulative total of confirmed cases in New Zealand is 2,025, up from 1,984 yesterday. The number of deaths from swine flu remains at nine. It's important to note that the actual number of cases of Novel influenza A (H1N1) will be significantly higher, as only a small proportion of people with symptoms are being tested. This is because for most people it's a mild illness and they will recover readily at home without needing medical treatment.

Australian situation
For the number of confirmed cases in Australia, go to the Australian Government's Department of Health and Ageing website:
http://www.healthemergency.gov.au/internet/healthemergency/publishing.nsf/Content/updates-12july09.htm

International Update from the World Health Organization
The World Health Organization is no longer issuing tables showing the numbers of confirmed cases for all countries. This is because there is an increasing number of cases in many countries, including New Zealand, which is making it extremely difficult to confirm laboratory testing in an accurate and timely manner. For more information about this reporting change go to the WHO website:
http://www.who.int/en/

ENDS

Information in this update can be attributed to Dr Fran McGrath, Ministry of Health.

For health information and advice: visit http://www.moh.govt.nz or call Healthline 0800 611 116

For latest updates on novel Influenza A (H1N1) 09 - Swine Flu: visit http://www.moh.govt.nz