Rhiza Labs FluTracker Forum

Eight cases of the H1N1 virus, known as swine flu, have been confirmed in Otago and Southland so far this winter.

Nationally, there have been five deaths related to the H1N1 virus this year but in the South none of the eight people affected became ill enough to require treatment in intensive care.

Otago and Southland medical officer of health, Dr Marion Poore, said the level of influenza-like illness in the Southern district had risen in the past seven days from 60 to 80 consultations per 100,000 people. A similar peak was recorded in late July.

The rate was expected to continue to increase during the next few weeks, she said.

Although the new H1N1 virus predominated, other influenza viruses were also circulating.

Doctors' practices were coping with the numbers.
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The Hawke's Bay man with swine flu who died this week was Junior Afani Togia. The 22-year-old was the youngest of 10 children.

A family member said yesterday they were still coming to terms with the loss and weren't ready to talk. Mr Togia's funeral will be held at the Napier Baptist Church tomorrow.

Mr Togia, who had an underlying health condition, died in Hawke's Bay Hospital on Tuesday. Tests confirmed he had the pandemic influenza strain H1N1, but the cause of death will be confirmed by the coroner.

His death was the first in the region to be attributed to swine flu, and the fifth in New Zealand this year.
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Sauce for the swine is sauce for all flu
By JANINE RANKIN - The Manawatu Standard Last updated 13:00 14/08/2010

Swine flu isn't the only illness circulating in the MidCentral Health district, but medical officer of health Jill McKenzie says the same public health messages apply to them all.

Staying away from others while sick, careful handwashing and drying, and seeking medical advice if symptoms get worse is the consistent advice.

Since the second wave of the pandemic H1N1 hit the district last month, there have been 19 confirmed cases and seven people have been admitted to Palmerston North Hospital.

The virus was blamed for most illness in the community, but few people were being swabbed for a definite diagnosis.

Some schools were experiencing high levels of illness, but most were coping, and within a week or two attendances were returning to normal.

Whakarongo School began this week with 117 of its 330 students off sick.

Acting principal Lesley Jeffery said students were slowly returning to class, but it was taking time for them to recover, and many parents were expecting to keep children at home until Monday.

Nationally, there have been 332 people admitted to hospitals with lab-confirmed pandemic influenza, including 46 admissions to intensive care.

Last week consultations for flu-like illness were higher than at the same time two years ago, but they are still lower than they were during last winter's first wave of the pandemic.

Healthline (0800611116) handled around 9000 calls of all types in the week to Wednesday.

With the increase in influenza H1N1 currently circulating the Ministry will now be providing public updates twice weekly.

There have been 389 hospitalisations of lab-confirmed pandemic influenza H1N1 this year to date in New Zealand, including 10 people currently in intensive care. There have been a total of 59 admissions to intensive care so far this year. These figures do not include influenza-like illness among people admitted to hospital without a positive H1N1 lab test result.

So far this year there have been six deaths reported as linked to swine flu - four of these deaths are currently being considered by the Coroner and so are not yet considered as confirmed as swine flu deaths.
Healthline handled around 1400 calls each day during the weekend of all types. Average call volumes are running nearly 35 per cent higher than normal seasonal levels. Calls requiring an assessment of influenza-like illness make up about a quarter of daily call volume.

Schools are reporting routine levels of children being away from school due to illness - based on information from sentinel schools around the country, at the end of last week no region was reporting average sickness rates above 15%. The absenteeism rates in Wairarapa schools now appear to be returning to normal levels.
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Aug 16, 2010
More H1N1 flu deaths in NZ

WELLINGTON - THE number of H1N1 flu deaths in New Zealand has risen to six and vaccine supplies are dwindling, officials said on Monday, despite the World Health Organisation declaring the pandemic over.

Two of the H1N1 flu deaths have been reported in the week since the WHO announced the world had entered a post-pandemic phase.

'So far this year there have been six deaths reported as linked to swine flu,' health ministry director of public health Mark Jacobs said.

There have been 389 people admitted to hospital with lab-confirmed H1N1 flu this year, including 59 who required intensive care.

Mr Jacobs said that New Zealand was also fast running out of influenza vaccine, with only 6,400 doses remaining in the country of 4.4 million people. 'While these are likely to run out by the end of August, the ministry is looking at options for extending immunisation while demand continues,' he said.

The WHO said last week that the H1N1 pandemic had 'largely run its course' although it acknowledged severe outbreaks could still occur in some countries. -- AFP

About 80 percent of patients seen with flu are likely to have swine flu, says Harbour Health chairwoman Kate Baddock.

Doctors have been talking to patients over the telephone and advising them to stay at home to stop spreading the virus, she says.

Dr Baddock, who works at the Warkworth Medical Centre, says patients need to keep their temperature under control and drink plenty of fluids.

Harbour Health primary health organisation covers North Shore and Rodney areas.

Many swine flu patients are young children and young adults because they are the ones that have not been vaccinated, she says.

A lot of the Harbour Health elderly residents were vaccinated against the virus so they are not seeing as many elderly, says Dr Baddock.

North Shore Hospital has seen a drop in the number of confirmed swine flu cases.

In the past three months there have been 26 patients with confirmed cases of the H1N1 virus.

At the same time last year there were 85 cases. Waitemata District Health Board communications adviser Kim Reed says because we have had a longer summer and autumn this year the peak flu season has started later.

There have been no deaths from the virus at the hospital.

Six people with swine flu have been admitted to intensive care in the past three months. Other patients were assessed and went home to receive treatment from their GP.

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A kindergarten was closed as a precaution for five days after many students got flu, while the province public health office reported one latest death from H1N1 influenza as a Don Jan district resident who reportedly got the virus from Chaiyaphum.

Out of seven people confirmed to have H1N1 influenza, one fatally ill man in his 40s was pronounced dead at Kalasin Hospital, said public health official Dr Pisit Euwongkul. All hospitals there thus were prompted to watch out for the virus and timely medicate suspected patients. Anuban Kalasin School, where many students had flu-like symptoms, announced its temporary closure for five days starting yesterday. The school will spray disinfectant before its reopening on August 23.

The number of people contracting swine flu continues to rise, and three new deaths have been linked to the strain of influenza, the Ministry of Health of says.

The three deaths reported since Monday occurred in the Waitemata, Auckland and Waikato areas and took the number of deaths this winter to nine.

One of the three new deaths, a 53-year-old man, who died in Waikato Hospital this week, had no other health issues.

The other two people who died, a 29-year-old Auckland man on Monday and a 57 year-old man at North Shore last week, both had underlying medical conditions.

As of this morning, 14 people were in intensive care with H1N1. There had been 454 swine flu hospitalisations this year, including 67 people who were admitted to intensive care units.

Last year 35 deaths were linked to swine flu.

Rising numbers of people with influenza like symptoms were stretching health services, with Healthline handling more than 2000 calls from people with influenza-like illness last week, Darren Hunt, deputy director of Public Health, said.

GPs were also seeing increasing numbers of people with influenza-like illness, Dr Hunt said.

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Swine flu infection is increasing in New Zealand, with nine deaths this year linked to the virus, including three in the past three days, health officials said yesterday.

Although World Health Organisation director-general Margaret Chan announced on August 10 that the H1N1 influenza virus had moved into the post-pandemic period, there has been a second wave in New Zealand's winter.

''Influenza H1N1 activity is continuing to increase,'' said deputy director of public health Darren Hunt.

Advertisement: Story continues belowMore than 450 people have been admitted to hospital with the virus this year, with 67 people needing treatment in intensive care units.

Reports from across the country showed widely differing levels of infection.

Influenza H1N1 activity is continuing to increase, and the Ministry of Health is now providing twice-weekly updates.

As at 8am this morning, there have been 454 hospitalisations of lab-confirmed pandemic influenza H1N1 this year to date in New Zealand, including 14 people currently in intensive care with confirmed H1N1. There have been a total of 67 admissions of confirmed H1N1 to intensive care so far this year. These figures do not include influenza-like illness among people admitted to hospital without a positive H1N1 lab test result.

Pandemic influenza H1N1 is the most common strain of influenza circulating in the community, although most people will not be tested for it. For the majority of people it's a mild to moderate illness, but for some it can be serious.

So far this year there have been nine deaths reported as linked to swine flu. Six of these deaths have so far been confirmed as being due to swine flu. The three deaths reported since Monday's update - all confirmed as due to swine flu - occurred in the Waitemata, Auckland and Waikato DHB areas. Further information on these new cases is available from each DHB's website.

There continues to be strong uptake of recommendations to seek medical advice early. Healthline handled over 2000 calls from people with influenza-like illness last week. Call volumes are running at around the same rates they were at this time last year during the pandemic. Calls requiring an assessment of influenza-like illness made up about a third of all calls during the last week.

GPs are continuing to see increasing numbers of people with influenza-like illness. In the last week there was a notable increase in the number of pre-schoolers being seen by GPs. If you have flu-like symptoms, phoning your GP first before you go in can help them manage your care and prevent spread to others.

Overall, schools are reporting routine levels of children being away from school due to illness, however this has been varying across the country and communities.

*A weekly rate of <50 ILI consultations per 100,000 patient population is considered baseline activity. A rate of 50-249 is considered indicative of normal seasonal influenza activity, and a rate of 250-399 indicative of higher than expected influenza activity. A rate of >400 ILI consultations per 100,000 patient population indicates an epidemic level of influenza activity.