CONFIRMED CASES of the potentially fatal swine flu virus continue to rise in a number of countries but last night it was confirmed that tests for the virus on four Irish people who recently returned from overseas have proved negative.
Dr Tony Holohan, the State’s chief medical officer, stressed there were no “confirmed or probable cases . . . in the country at this point in time”.
While it was likely more people here would present with respiratory symptoms in coming days and would also require testing, details of other suspect cases would not be made public. Announcements would only be made if and when cases were confirmed, he said.
He was speaking as the number of cases of swine flu in the US rose to 64 and as a state of emergency was declared in California by governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, where so far 13 cases of swine flu have been confirmed. None has been fatal, although Los Angeles County Coroner’s officials were investigating two deaths as possibly related to the disease. While a number of other US states have also confirmed cases of swine flu, most of them have been detected in New York.
Cases of the H1N1 virus, which originated in Mexico and is a mix of pig, avian and human influenza, were also confirmed for the first time in New Zealand and Israel yesterday. A second case was confirmed in Spain and two further cases were confirmed in Canada.
Several countries have recommended that citizens avoid all except essential trips to Mexico. This advice was also issued by Dr Holohan. “We are advising people they should avoid unnecessary travel to those regions.”
The World Health Organisation has not yet ordered any travel restrictions and while it believes the current virus could set off a flu pandemic, it stressed this is not inevitable.
To date more than 150 deaths have been reported in Mexico but not all of these have been laboratory confirmed. No deaths from swine flu have been reported outside Mexico.
Prof Bill Hall, chairman of the Irish pandemic influenza expert group, said it was still unclear why cases occurring outside of Mexico seemed relatively mild.
“I think we have to really evaluate much larger numbers of infected individuals outside Mexico to see if this remains the same or . . . a milder disease.”
Pat Wall, professor of public health at UCD, has stressed that no sick pigs are involved in the outbreak, that transmission is from human to human and that, therefore, a more correct name for the virus would be a Mexican variant of the flu. Although there are no sick pigs involved in the outbreak, Russia banned imports of pork from 13 US states yesterday.
The Lancet medical journal says today that further deaths from this swine flu can be expected, adding that every member of the public has a part to play in limiting the risk of a full-blown pandemic. “Vigilance, and not alarm, is needed, with readiness to self-isolate oneself at home if an influenza-like illness develops,” it said.