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The Ministry of Health has been given new powers to put into quarantine anybody who might have come into contact with somebody who has H1N1 flu.
The Ministry has held a media conference in Auckland to detail
moves it's taking to fight the H1N1 emergency.
This after the government introduced new regulations on Monday
giving health authorities more power to cope with the
emergency.
H1N1, or swine flu, became a notifiable disease several weeks ago,
meaning every case has to be reported.
Now the Ministry of Health has been given new powers to call anybody who might have come into contact with somebody who has H1N1 flu to put them into isolation, even if that person doesn't feel sick.
Dr Mark Jacobs, Director of Public Health, says the changes made on Monday add non- seasonal influenza to a list of diseases under regulations under the Health Act.
He says that means that in the unlikely event the ministry needs to use legislative powers to deal with potential spread in community, it can require contacted cases to be put into isolation, and also require students and teachers not to go into school for a week if there have been cases in that school.
So far, in Australia - where the swine flu tally has passed 1200 -, Japan and the United States, the virus has spread most virulently in schools.
There are further powers the ministry can apply for to be able to close schools and businesses but it says it won't be applying for those unless H1N1 flu becomes a full blown pandemic.
Precautionary measure
Health Minister Tony Ryall says the new powers for public health officials to enforce quarantine on H1N1 sufferers are just a precautionary measure.
People have been fully co-operative so far but health officials said the new powers would give more authority to their public requests, Ryall told Radio New Zealand.
The new powers were just a precautionary step and "a back up to difficult cases", he said.
Overseas experience showed emergency departments and GP clinics were being overwhelmed with people showing up with symptoms, he said.
"Anything we can do to delay that from happening in our schools and communities means that we can keep the rest of our health services available to those in need."
In the case of a fully blown outbreak, community-based assessment centres would draw people away from hospitals and GPs if there was a widespread outbreak, he said.
Ryall said the medical officers' new powers did not extend to the closure of schools, which could only be invoked by the minister of health.
Jacobs told family doctors community transmission in New Zealand was inevitable.
"The recent rapid increase in cases in Australia in particular emphasises that community transmission in New Zealand is a matter of when rather than if," he wrote in the College of GPs newsletter, ePulse.
Cases confirmed, more feared
There are 17 confirmed H1N1 flu cases in New Zealand.
Sixteen students and two teachers at Gisborne Boys High were put into quarantine in a classroom on Tuesday morning.
Five of them are exhibiting mild flu-like symptoms after the group returned from Brisbane on Sunday. It's being treated as a suspected H1N1 flu incident.
A public health spokeswoman says the school moved quickly in isolating the students on Tuesday and calling in health authorities.
And New Zealand's swimmers have suffered a blow in their
build-up to next month's world championships in Rome.
A Grand Prix meet in Melbourne next weekend has been cancelled due
to the H1N1 flu outbreak.
A number of New Zealanders were due to compete in the meet which
was to be their only warm-up event prior to the world
championships.
