10:47 13/02/2012
Medical staff are on board an Air New Zealand plane from Japan which landed this morning at Auckland International Airport with 73 passengers suffering flu-like symptoms.
The medics are assessing the passengers to decide how they will be treated.
The plane landed from Tokyo at 9.20am and St John ambulance staff were alerted by Aviation Security Services.
A St John ambulance spokesman said two crews were on the aircraft wearing protective gear while they carried out the assessments. All 274 passengers are remaining on board while that is done.
Initial reports said the sick passengers were New Zealand children returning home from a school trip, but the St John spokesman said that had not been verified.
Further medical staff and several ambulances are on standby at the airport.
The spokesman said Aviation Security Services staff were working to identify two safe, well-ventilated areas at the airport where passengers could be taken. If passengers needed to be moved through crowds, that would also be done with caution.
Large numbers of masks were being taken to the airport for passengers.
If large numbers of passengers needed to be taken to hospital from the airport, it was likely a bus would be used to move them.
An Air New Zealand spokeswoman said they were following public health procedures and had advised the Auckland Regional Public Health Service.
A Counties Manukau District Health Board manager said all hospitals were "contingency planning" in case they were required to take passengers although would not give details of what those plans were.
Japan is currently experiencing a major flu epidemic.
News agencies report that by February 5, more than 2.1 million people in Japan had the flu. That had jumped by 380,000 cases on the previous week.
The number of people seeking medical treatment exceeded that during the peak of the swine flu outbreak in 2009, and authorities are warning the current epidemic has yet to peak.
The data shows that most patients tested were found to have been infected by the A strain of the virus, known in Japan as the "Hong Kong" strain.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/travel/travel-troubles/6407820/Flight-flu-incident-at-Auckland-airport
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