Australia plans for worst case scenario

By Sheilah Downey

As Australian swine flu cases pass the 10,000 mark in the midst of the winter season, the government is projecting 6,000 deaths from the virus as a worst-case scenario, said Health Minister Nicola Roxon.

"That's the modeling if no action was taken," she said, "of course we are taking a lot of action and we believe that can be significantly reduced," according to Yahoo news.

A 38-year old mother from Queensland died from the swine flu Tuesday and was believed to have been at increased risk because of her obesity, stated the report. Hers was the 22nd death from the H1N1 virus in Australia.

Australian Biopharmaceutical firm CSL is slated to begin human trials of a swine flu vaccine in mid-July, according to their website. They are asking healthy adults aged between 18 and 64 years to participate in the trials over a six month period.

The Australian Department of Health and Ageing is planning to supply up to 10 million people with a vaccine against the swine flu virus.

The virus has infected a total of 10,387 people in Australia, said Roxon, which is more than 10 percent of cases reported by the World Health Organization in their latest reports.

WHO health officials on Tuesday released warnings and advisories on those considered most at risk.

"Although the severity of the pandemic is currently considered to be moderate with most patients experiencing uncomplicated, self-limited illness, some groups such as pregnant women and persons with asthma and other chronic conditions such as morbid obesity appear to be at increased risk for severe disease and death from infection."