- For full coverage of swine flu outbreak, click [nFLU] (Updates number, adds state pandemic alert) CANBERRA, April 28 (Reuters) - Nineteen people with suspected swine flu are being tested in Australia, with authorities searching for 300 others who could have come into contact with the disease, authorities said on Tuesday. Four people from Sydney and one other person from the Central Coast, north of Sydney, had swabs taken after visiting doctors on return from Mexico, the United States and Canada with mild flu symptoms, a spokesman for Health Minister Nicola Roxon said. Fourteen others were being tested in tropical Queensland state, where the Premier Anna Bligh activated the government's pandemic emergency plan. "We have no cause to declare any disaster at this stage but we are making sure we are ready," Bligh told reporters. The 300 others authorities were searching for may have come into contact with the flu after sharing an Air New Zealand flight with a group of Auckland school children suspected as being infected with the disease, health experts said. [nWEL455831] The Australian government strengthened border surveillance on Monday as a precaution against swine flu, which the World Health Organisation has declared a "health emergency of international concern" after it killed more than 100 people in Mexico. The measures require pilots to report the health status of passengers on flights from the Americas before they can land, while health officials are on standby at airports. Australia has large stockpiles of anti-viral drugs. (Reporting by Rob Taylor; Editing by Jeremy Laurence)
An airport worker wears a surgical mask as he moves the baggage of a tourist at the international airport Benito Juarez in Mexico City April 27, 2009. A new virus has ...
