Australian tests positive to swine flu: report

Posted 12 minutes ago
Updated 10 minutes ago

His two housemates are not infected but have been told to stay put as a precaution. (AFP: Katie Collins )

• Video: WHO renames swine flu (ABC News)
• Video: Govt cautions against rush on antivirals (ABC News)
• Audio: Canberra urges calm amid mixed messages (The World Today)
• Audio: Minister warns Australians against stockpiling or panicking about swine flu (PM)
• Audio: Mexico to shut down for five days (PM)
• Related Story: Hong Kong, Denmark confirm first swine flu cases
• Related Story: Defiant Mexicans to ignore shutdown orders
• Related Story: Swine flu causing 'unnecessary panic'
• Related Link: Infographic: Swine flu map
• Related Link: FAQ: Swine flu

The first Australian to test positive to swine flu has been placed in quarantine in London.

The man has been identified as Mark Robertson, a 23-year-old marketing manager from Coogee in Sydney.

He has been told he cannot leave his flat in Islington, north London.

His two housemates - one from Australia, the other British - are not infected but have been told to stay put as a precaution.

The Sydney Morning Herald said Mr Robertson had been holidaying in South and Central America for four months, before spending two weeks at a Mexican beach resort.

He arrived in London on April 23 feeling fine but became ill about a week ago.

"I went to the hospital in Tottenham Court Road and that was it," he told the newspaper.

"Now I've been told I can't go out the door again until next Thursday."

All three have been prescribed anti-viral Tamiflu and will undergo tests next week.

Earlier Hong Kong and Denmark have announced their first confirmed cases of swine flu.

An infected Mexican man arrived in Hong Kong on Thursday from Mexico via Shanghai, the city's chief executive Donald Tsang told local media.

Meanwhile, a person in Denmark has been confirmed as suffering from swine flu, the country's National Board of Health said, the first confirmed case in the Nordic region.

Response time

The World Health Organisation (WHO) says it is examining its response to the swine flu outbreak in Mexico following accusations that the UN agency has reacted too slowly.

WHO spokesman Thomas Abrahams says it was informed by the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) about the emergence of a new flu virus on April 24.

"There are case of influenza all the time, but once we knew that this illness was caused by a new influenza virus... we moved into operation within a matter of hours," he said.

Media reports in recent days said there was a delay of eight days in the WHO's response.

Mexican health authorities notified the WHO's Washington-based regional branch, the Pan American Health Organisation on April 16 of a possibly brewing epidemic, following "unusual pneumonia cases", according to the Washington Post's website.

A US biosurveillance firm, Veratect, said on its website that its tracking reports of atypical pneumonia and respiratory disease in Mexico early last month were made available to the WHO.