April 29 (Bloomberg) -- Swine flu was confirmed in New Zealand and suspected cases were found in at least four nations in the Asia-Pacific region, where some governments are calling for trade and travel bans to stem the spread of the virus.
Malaysia asked the World Health Organization to ban outbound travel from Mexico, while South Korea, China, Indonesia and the Philippines barred or restricted imports of pork products from North America. The Geneva-based WHO doesn’t advise travel restrictions as that won’t stop the spread of the virus, and said people can’t get swine flu from eating well-cooked pork.
Some governments in Asia, the region worst affected by previous outbreaks of severe acute respiratory syndrome and avian flu, are overreacting to the threat of swine flu, said John MacKenzie, a virus tracker who led an international team investigating an outbreak of SARS in China in 2003.
Malaysia’s proposal is “ridiculous,” MacKenzie said. Countries demanding travel restrictions are doing so without evidence it would mitigate the spread of the disease, he said.
Swine flu results in symptoms similar to regular human influenza such as fever, lethargy and coughing, and may also cause nausea, vomiting and diarrhea, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Mexican authorities today raised the toll of suspected swine flu-related deaths to 159 while revising down the number of confirmed deaths to seven from 20.
First Confirmed Cases
New Zealand confirmed 14 cases of swine flu in Auckland, its biggest city, up from 11 yesterday. They’re the only definite infections in the Asia-Pacific region. A further five cases are suspected, said Julia Peters, Auckland’s regional public health team leader.
Australia is testing 90 people for swine flu, and authorities are searching for 15 people who were on a plane from Mexico two days ago, Health Minister Nicola Roxon said. The nation also said it will disinfect planes and quarantine people who show symptoms of the disease.
Singapore referred 17 people with flu-like symptoms for medical assessment, the Ministry of Health said yesterday. Of those, four have tested negative for swine flu and there were no confirmed cases of the virus in the city-state, it said. The ministry raised its alert from green to yellow yesterday, the second level on a five-color system.
The city’s National University Hospital distributed a memo to inpatients’ families today advising them that children under 12 won’t be allowed to visit patients in the hospital.
Malaysia’s Request
Malaysia’s government asked the WHO today to ban outbound travel from Mexico to stop the spread of swine flu.
“We have spoken to WHO officials and asked them to stop those in Mexico leaving the country,” Health Minister Liow Tiong Lai said.
Japan said yesterday it will suspend visa-free entry for Mexican nationals and advise its own citizens to defer trips to the Latin American nation. Mexicans will have to provide a doctor’s note and fill in a health form to obtain a visa.
Taiwan’s government is monitoring the situation and may order state-controlled funds to buy stocks in the market as the swine flu outbreak worsens, Finance Minister Lee Sush-der said by telephone today. The government controls five funds, including the National Stabilization Fund that was created in 2000 with NT$500 billion ($15 billion).
The island’s government yesterday raised its travel alert for Mexico to red, the highest of three levels, meaning citizens are advised against visiting the country. Taiwan will require passengers to be screened on flights from Canada and the U.S. and their health status reported before being allowed to land.
Schools, Quarantine Camps
Hong Kong will close schools and set up quarantine camps if swine flu spreads in the community, the South China Morning Post reported, citing Secretary for Food and Health York Chow.
Schools would be closed if one or more cases were found and the disease looked as though it was spreading, the newspaper cited Chow as saying. The Lady MacLehose Holiday Village, which was used as a quarantine centre during the SARS outbreak in 2003, is being prepared for a possible outbreak.
The city is testing four people for swine flu after they exhibited symptoms and had been in areas where the virus has been confirmed, Thomas Tsang, controller at Hong Kong’s Centre for Health Protection, said yesterday. Three other people were tested this week, and none had the virus.
A South Korean woman classified as a “probable” case of swine flu yesterday is healthy and may recover, Yonhap News reported, citing a health ministry official it didn’t identify. The country yesterday raised its national disaster rating to yellow from the lowest level of blue.
Pig Ban
South Korea will suspend imports of live hogs from North America starting today, the Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries said. The government will inspect all shipments of the animals from other regions for the virus.
The country joins China, Indonesia and the Philippines among Asian nations curbing pork imports in defiance of WHO advice that swine flu can’t be transmitted by eating pork.
“You don’t catch influenza from pork,” said MacKenzie, a professorial fellow at Curtin University of Technology in Perth, Australia. “That’s a very silly gut reaction.”
In Thailand, initial test results on a 42-year-old woman suspected of having swine flu were negative, Kamnuan Ungchoosak, an official at the Health Ministry’s Disease Control Department, said yesterday.
To contact the reporter on this story: Simeon Bennett in Singapore at sbennett9@bloomberg.net
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