How does Australia face influenza A / H1N1?

Australia is currently living in the fact that what the northern hemisphere will soon face: It is a winter with influenza A / H1N1.

Health officials in countries like Britain and the US are therefore looking at Australia as a global case study, and learn the lessons they can learn from this country in dealing with pandemics. .

The gap does not protect Australia's vast country and the A / H1N1 pandemic has reached the country in early May. Since then, more than 40 people have died and more than 16,000 people have been infected. However, there was no panic among the people before the pandemic, despite the fact that Melbourne ' was ' dubbed the 'World of Influenza A / H1N1 ', with the highest rate of people infected.

When the flu first spread to New Zealand, Australia had few key weeks to respond appropriately to the pandemic. They prepared an extensive information dissemination campaign, advising people to wash their hands cleanly, thoroughly examine the airport to identify people infected with the virus.

If there's a sensitive place, it's ports. Travelers traveling to the country set foot in this country without checking.

Australia is becoming a global case study of H1N1 influenza (Photo: AFP)

Although a swimming competition had to be postponed in June, most of the sporting events and activities with large concentration were not broken. People go out without wearing masks, the outbreak of the flu does not dominate the main headlines of the media, even though it is widely informed.

Some schools have to close down, because Australia understands that children are referred to as 'H1N1'. According to Professor Raina MacIntyre, from the University of New South Wales, "closing schools is probably a drug-free intervention, and social distance interventions may have an effect," she said. " We can compete on ways such as stopping sports events, banning crowded people . But they are less influential than closing schools, because children are one of the agents that save and transmission of major diseases '.

According to her, there are a number of ' vulnerable ' groups in Australia: children, pregnant women and obese people .

But Indigenous Australians are also part of a high-risk group, because many Aboriginal people have chronic illnesses, not including bad health care conditions in remote communities they live in. Then, the problem of poor living conditions can contribute to speeding up the spread of disease.

Last week, Alf Lacey, Mayor of Palm Island in Queensland described the fact that 15 people live in a three-bedroom house. An estimated 400 people out of 3,500 local people are infected. Last week, a pregnant woman with influenza A / H1N1 was urgently taken off the island by air. However, she could not keep her unborn child.

Elsewhere in Australia, units that care for heavy patients are under tremendous pressure. The need to use ECMO - a machine that acts as an artificial lung - increased dramatically. A hospital in Sydney said, usually every year, they treat about five patients who need to use ECMO. In just a few weeks, this demand has doubled.

Last week, Australia was the first country in the world, started testing H1N1 influenza vaccine on people in Melbourne and Adelaide. Hopefully this vaccine will be available in October and the Australian government ordered 21 million doses. Firms developing new flu vaccines are also looking for overseas consumption.

Then spring will begin in Australia, as one of the lessons it receives from the northern hemisphere is that influenza A / H1N1 can spread even during the peak of summer.