Swine flu victim remains in critical condition

A Lower Hutt woman tonight remains in critical condition with swine flu in Wellington Hospital's intensive care unit.

The 30-year-old morbidly obese woman, with respiratory problems as well as swine flu, was believed to be a unique case, Capital & Coast District Health Board communications manager Michael Tull said.

She remained the person in the country most affected by the H1N1 virus.

Two other people in the Wellington hospital had swine flu as well as other conditions, though their condition was not as serious, Mr Tull said.

The hospital has also instituted a policy requiring visitors to be free of flu-like symptoms, DHB chief executive Ken Whelan said.

"As a general rule, hospitals are designed for sick patients, not sick visitors.

"Some visitors don't seem to be getting the message, and in the interests of patient safety we'll be asking those people to leave."

Nationally the cumulative total of confirmed cases has reached 216, of whom 158 were sick now. The past week saw cases surge by 120.

There were 643 suspected cases but figures were expected to climb much higher than that.

Most of the infected were in the three main cities.

Earlier Health Minister Tony Ryall announced a switch in policy to control community-level spread. Previously, the strategy had been one of containment.

"We are moving today because of the widespread community transmission of swine flu, the fact that we've got large numbers of people out there in the community (infected).

"Our focus is now moving to helping those people in the community that have the illness.

"We're remaining in code yellow, we are not moving to code red This is a reflection of the spread, not the severity, of the flu," he said.

Businesses were unlikely to need to close.

Mr Ryall released charts showing the spread of the confirmed case rates and said health authorities here had managed to delay the spread by about eight weeks.

He said it was "almost impossible" to keep track of how many people had the flu.

In Canterbury, health officials had abandoned routine testing and screening passengers at the Christchurch International Airport.

Canterbury Medical Officer of Health Alistair Humphrey said the region's first screening centre opened today at 4.30pm.

People who reported swine flu-like symptoms to their GPs would be referred to the community-based assessment centre, he said.

"As well as the 58 cases that have been confirmed in Canterbury, there is now evidence of extensive spread of swine flu in Canterbury, with most people experiencing it as a mild to moderate illness and recovering without needing medical care."

The Ministry of Health also announced that people with swine flu would be longer routinely be given Tamiflu, with medical officers instead dosing only the seriously ill.

Gisborne, Northland, Taranaki and Otago-Southland would continue with a containment strategy because there were no confirmed cases in those areas.

Health authorities were now focusing on ensuring community-based health services were able to manage large numbers of people with flu as well as maintain services for other ill people.

Those who can were encouraged to look after themselves at home they way they would with any other flu.

People were urged to get the normal winter flu vaccination and more doses had been bought.

- NZPA