Health scare at Auckland Airport #H5N1 #BIRDFLU

updated 11:59

 Monday February 13, 2012 Source: ONE News

• Source: ONE News

A major health response is under way after an Air New Zealand plane landed at Auckland Airport with children with flu-like symptoms on-board.
The alarm was raised when a group of 73 children arrived into Auckland off NZ90 from Narita, Tokyo, at 9.20am this morning with the symptoms.
Air New Zealand is following public health procedures and has advised the Auckland Regional Public Health Service.

The Boeing 777-200 had 274 passengers on-board.
Five St John vehicles arrived at the scene to assist passengers.
ONE News reporter Stephen Smith said unaffected passengers are now off the plane and are going through customs. They are still dealing with affected passengers.

Smith said the group of 90 children were on a student-exchange and were heading to Tauranga.
Chris Auld, who earlier tweeted that he was on-board the plane, said there was a "reasonable job of communication. Looks like we can now clear customs."

"Pax being given information sheet. If immunised probably all ok. Now able to leave."
Auld said it was "pretty routine" and he thought the crew handled the situation really well.
Sarah Lee earlier commented on TV ONE's Facebook page that her friend is on the plane and they "haven't been told anything".
Ambulance services said there was a large number of Japanese and Canadians on-board.
The Ministry of Health said they are aware of the event and are monitoring the response.

Minister of Health Tony Ryall is playing down the incident.
"We've been briefed on the situation, and advised that it is Japan's flu season, there are no reports of new strains of flu there, Ryall said.
"We're keeping a watching brief but been told there's nothing to suggest it's anything other than seasonal flu."

Meanwhile, an influenza epidemic is spreading across Japan, doubling the number of cases per hospital, The Mainichi Daily News reported.
Over 90% of the cases are due to the Hong Kong influenza A virus subtype H3N2, the report said.

Google flu trends also show that the virus is peaking in Japan.

The "Hong Kong Flu" pandemic of 1968 and 1969, caused by a strain of H3N2, killed an estimated one million people worldwide. http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/health-scare-auckland-airport-4717991