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Source: Reuters -
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Some New Zealand schools are asking pupils to stay home if they have just got back from Australia.
The Ministry of Health has suggested the move in its guidelines to schools to help stop the spread of the H1N1 virus.
At Halswell Primary in Christchurch, five children were told to stay home.
"I think it's better to err on the side of caution," says Principal Bruce Topham.
"I considered my role could have been an over reaction to start with, but the parents were very accepting once I spoke to them."
Topham was following Ministry of Health guidelines to the letter, which suggest children should stay home for seven days, even if they do not have any flu symptoms.
But Mark Jacobs, director of Public Health, says it is certainly not a formal request.
In Kaiapoi, Principal Ash Maindonald is glad that he followed the guidelines.
He and his son are recovering from H1N1 flu, after a trip to the United Sates.
They quarantined themselves last week, even before feeling sick.
"The ministry said that taking that action and keeping my family in quarantine before I knew that I had it ... has stopped its spread," Maindonald says.
At Auckland Airport, fresh off the plane from Australia, parents did not seemed convinced that their children should be kept out of school.
Suspected cases on the rise
New Zealand had a total of 92 suspected cases on Sunday, up from 68 on Saturday.
There are now more than 1,050 cases of the H1N1 swine flu virus in Australia, compared to the 17 in New Zealand.
"It is now spreading rapidly in our closest neighbour and so it's not something that schools or the rest of New Zealand can really afford to forget," says Jacobs.
If the virus does start spreading rapidly, schools and early childhood centres could be closed.
Childcare centre closed
The Tama Ale Eleele A'oga Amata Childcare centre in Auckland's Papatoetoe has already been forced to close.
They asked ONE News not to film while they disinfected the centre, where a one-year-old boy was diagnosed with the H1N1 flu last week.
All children and staff from the centre have been tested and cleared the flu.
In a message titled "Pigs can't fly but flu can", public health boss Jacobs warned family doctors that community transmission in New Zealand is a matter of "when rather than if".
"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," the message reads.
"In the event of sustained community transmission, hospitals already entering the seasonal influenza period would soon be overwhelmed, most people will need to be cared for at home supported by telephone triage, probably through Healthline."
A Health Ministry public-awareness campaign began on radio on Saturday and will be extended to newspapers and international airports on Monday.
Canterbury medical officer of health Dr Alistair Humphrey agrees with Jacobs about the likely spread of the flu in New Zealand.
"Australia went from nothing to basically losing control of the outbreak in a week. That has happened in quite a few countries but it hasn't happened yet in New Zealand.
"By and large we've done a good job at keeping it at bay; we don't have thousands of cases all occurring at one go putting our health services and indeed our businesses under stress."
