SECRETARIAT OF THE PACIFIC
COMMUNITY
Private Mail Bag, Suva, Fiji
Telephone: (679) 337 0733
Fax: (679) 338 6326 Or 337 0021
SECRÉTARIAT GÉNÉRAL DE
LA COMMUNAUTÉ du
PACIFIQUE
Private Mail Bag, Suva, Fidji
Téléphone: (679) 337 0733
Télécopieur:(679) 3386326
ANIMAL HEALTH Influenza A (H1N1) and (H5N1) Update 9 as of 27th May, 2009
PURPOSE : To inform bio-security and agriculture agency personnel of
developments regarding an outbreak of the new influenza A virus
(H1N1) in humans and its implications on animal health and trade.
BACKGROUND
A new strain of Influenza A (H1N1) virus affecting humans is steadily spreading to new
countries as summarised below. Secondary infection or community spread of the disease is
still occurring in a significant way in US and Mexico but not as much elsewhere in other
infected countries. It is believed in those countries that are experiencing transmission in the
community that the number of tested and confirmed cases comprise only a very small
minority of total cases with most cases being comparatively mild in otherwise healthy
individuals.
BREAKING NEWS

WHO sticks with current pandemic alert phase

Some countries are reporting some community transmission cases but these are
subject to confirmation

Fiji, as the pacific hub for international flight links to the PICTs, is vital for our
region.

Australia is also reporting numerous cases in several states, including cases with no
recent travel history, particularly in Melbourne. Confirmed case numbers have been
rising rapidly over recent days, including 18 cases directly linked to a cruise ship, the
Pacific Dawn that recently visited some western Pacific countries during last week.
There has also been one confirmed case in China linked to travel from Melbourne.

Japan has the most cases outside North America, with 360 as of today, according to
the health ministry.

Flu experts are commenting that some countries are underreporting cases and
believe there are more cases in the infected countries that are not reported. A report
from UK suggests that the virus in UK may be 300 times more widespread than is
being reported by authorities. In US almost certainly many more than 100,000
people have been infected

Others are saying some countries probably have cases but are not detected due to
poor surveillance system and or reporting systems, especially developing and
underdeveloped countries such as ours. For example, case in China and Russia have
been linked to recent travel to the Dominican Republic which has not reported any
domestic cases.

New Influenza A(H1N1) is spreading more widely than official figures indicate, with
outbreaks in Europe and Asia showing it has gained a foothold in at least three
regions.

Global novel Influenza A (H1N1) surpasses 13,300 case mark (13, 398) with 96 deaths
.

USA surpasses 6,000 case mark (6764) with 10 deaths

Russia, Iceland, Honduras, Greece, Philippines, Singapore,Chinese Taipei and
Kuwait recorded confirmed cases making total of 48 countries now confirmed cases.

A cruise ship, Pacific Dawn, visited Vanuatu on 20-21 May, 2009 and Loyalties
Islands of New Caledonia had on board a couple of children who tested positive to
H1N1 on arrival in Sydney on 25 May, 2009. There have been unconfirmed reports
that the disease may have most likely come onto this vessel in passengers from
Australia before commencing its recent cruise in the West Pacific. There have
subsequently been 18 confirmed cases from this vessel in Australia and at least an
additional 3 crew members affected as it cruise the great barrier reef off Queensland.
Vanuatu authorities are carry ing out investigations. New Caledonia’s Health and Social
Affairs Department has on Tuesday publicly called on persons living on the island of Lifou
(Loyalty Islands group, Northeast of the main island) to report to local health authorities if
they have been in contact with one or several tourists onboard Sydney-based cruise liner
Pacific Dawn when it last called on the small community.
Details of this cruise can be seen via the link below.
http://www.globenettravel.com.au/cruises/p&o_pacific_dawn.asp

The H1N1 virus strain causing the current outbreaks is said to be a triple
reassortment virus of other influenza A H1N1 variants circulating in pigs, birds and
humans..
GLOBAL SITUATION REPORT
1. Summary Update for INFLUENZA A (H1N1) as of 26th May, 2009
Country
Cumulative Total (confirmed cases)
Newly confirmed cases since
last reporting period
(19/5/09)
cases
Deaths
cases
Deaths
Mortality %
WESTERN HEMISPHERE
1 Mexico
4541
83
327
3
1.8
2 USA
6764
10
0
0
0.14
3 Canada
921
1
0
0
0.12
4 Costa Rica
33
1
0
0
3.6
5 Colombia
16
0
0
0
0
6 El Salvador
11
0
5
0
0
7 Guatemala
5
0
1
0
0
8 Brazil
9
0
1
0
0
9 Argentina
19
0
14
0
0
10 Peru
27
0
0
0
0
11 Ecuador
28
0
4
0
0
12 Chile
86
0
12
0
0
13 Panama
76
0
0
0
0
14 Cuba
4
0
0
0
0
15 Honduras
1
0
1
0
0
SUBTOTAL
12,581
96
365
3
0.76
1 UK
137
0
0
0
0
2 Spain
138
0
2
0
0
3 Germany
17
0
0
0
0
4 Switzerland
3
0
0
0
0
5 Austria
1
0
0
0
0
6 Netherland
3
0
0
0
0
7 Denmark
1
0
0
0
0
8 France
16
0
0
0
0
9 Italy
23
0
4
0
0
10 Ireland
1
0
0
0
0
11 Portugal
1
0
0
0
0
12 Poland
3
0
0
0
0
13 Sweden
3
0
0
0
0
14 Norway
4
0
0
0
0
15 Finland
2
0
0
0
0
16 Belgium
7
0
0
0
0
17 Greece
1
0
0
0
0
18 Iceland
1
0
0
0
0
19 Russia
2
0
0
0
0
SUBTOTAL
343
0
6
0
0
EUROPE
MIDDLE EAST
1 Israel
9
0
1
0
0
2 Turkey
2
0
0
0
0
3 Kuwait
18
0
0
0
0
SUBTOTAL
29
0
1
0
0
1 China (HK)
22
0
2
0
0
2Chinese Taipei
4
0
4
0
0
3 New Zealand
9
0
0
0
0
4 Rep Korea
21
0
0
0
0
5 Australia
39
0
20
0
0
6 Japan
360
0
10
0
0
7 Malaysia
2
0
0
0
0
8 India
1
0
0
0
0
9 Thailand
2
0
0
0
0
10 Philippines
2
0
o
0
0
11 Singapore
1
0
1
0
0
SUBTOTAL
424
0
32
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
92
3402
14
ASIA/PASIFIC
AFRICA
SUBTOTAL
GRAND TOTAL
13398
For further Information:
WHO daily situation reports and Guidance documents can be viewed at:
http://www.who.int/csr/disease/swineflu/en/index.html
WHO Press releases can be viewed at: http://www.who.int/ ;
http://www.cidrap.um.edu/index.html ; http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/updates/
For H5N1 ( bird flu ) situation Update please refer to:
http://www.who.int/csr/disease/avian_influenza/country/cases_table_2009_05_06/en/in
dex.html
ANIMAL HEALTH & BIO-SECURITY IMPLICATIONS
1. There is no evidence of mutation of Influenza A (H5N1) virus ( bird flu) in pigs yet and
scientist are closely monitoring the situation.
FAO Recommended Priority Actions for Countries
PICT government authorities are advised to carefully investigate possible occurrences of
Influenza-like symptoms in domestic animals. Swab samples can be collected and sent to
national labs and/or reference laboratories such as the Australian Animal Health
Laboratories in Australia or Centre for Disease Control in Atlanta in US for the US
Territories or to labs in Japan whichever is convenient. For FAO assistance get in touch by
contacting EMPRES-Shipping-Service@fao.org of support for transporting samples for
laboratory testing.
FAO recommends the following:
 Surveillance for porcine respiratory disease should be intensified and all cases of
porcine respiratory syndrome should be immediately reported to the national
agriculture and/or animal health authorities.


OIE, FAO and WHO should be informed when presence of the new A/H1N1
Influenza virus is confirmed.

Movement restrictions should be implemented for all farms or holdings with swine
showing signs of clinical respiratory illness until diagnosis of the illness have been
made. Where influenza A/H1N1 is confirmed, these restrictions should be in force
until seven (7) days after the last animal has recovered.

Persons who work directly with swine should not go to work if they have any signs of
respiratory disease, fever or any influenza-like illness.

Maintain vigilance for close communication and collaboration with public health
counterparts and the national influenza pandemic task force in the country, and
readiness to support their operations in any way reasonably possible.

In collaboration with health quarantine and other border control agencies intensify
awareness to incoming travellers including profiling high risk travellers as well as
post-entry surveillance of travellers to strengthened border protection measures
PICT Governments are requested to provide full support in improving biosecurity
measures particularly to small holder pig farmers.
( SPC encourages feedback report from countries of their current state of
preparedness and response to the current H1N1 situation )
PICT SENARIO

Although the number of reported cases in the Western Pacific Region remains low,
WHO warns this is no time for complacency. The influenza A(H1N1) virus is expected
to continue spreading and infecting more people in more countries and it is
anticipated that more countries will experience community-level transmission in
humans, and the risk of potential entry to the region and into PICTs will continue to
escalate despite the current uncertainties or speculations. The case for renewed
vigilance is stronger now than ever, particularly in the Southern Hemisphere as it
moves into its seasonal influenza season.

There is a significant and increasing probability that when cases start arriving at our
borders or start occurring in travellers within our borders, the numbers will escalate
very rapidly due to our current weaknesses in surveillance and in-country response
resource limitation situation in PICTs.

Our people are culturally very close to their pigs, so there is possibly a greater chance
of the disease going back into and/or establishing and running in pigs here if we do
not get quite serious about preventing that from happening. One way the agriculture
authorities in PICTs can do is to do some good strong advocacy to remind respective
administrations that whilst this is primarily a human worry at present, there are
important animal health and production aspects to it that must not be ignored.

It is therefore absolute necessity that Governments in the Western Pacific Region
must take this time to step up preparedness activities. Based on current analysis and
past pandemic experiences, scientist are contemplating that up to one third of the
world's population could yet get infected by influenza A(H1N1) and could be
catatrophic for developing countries.
Note that mostly people travelling from France to New Caledonia and to Wallis have a
transit in Osaka airport (2hours).

Due to entry of people to Wallis and Futuna via Osaka and New Caledonia from Europe,
the Director of the Agriculture Services in Wallis, Mr PERINET stated that the
syndromic surveillance must be strengthened for respiratory symptoms in pigs: he
officially asked the vet services of Wallis to report each respiratory disease in pigs . He
also. Mr PERINET forwarded the SPC AH&P update to the Human health agency in
Wallis. This is a classical example of a good collaboration between animal health and
human health agencies. PICTs are encouraged to do this. Also note, the French people
coming from France to Wallis pass by Nandi too.

Up to now, the new virus has largely circulated in the northern hemisphere, where
epidemics of seasonal influenza should be winding down," Director-General of WHO, Dr
Chan said. "We need to watch the behaviour of H1N1 very carefully as it encounters other
influenza viruses circulating during the winter season in the southern hemisphere.
 Flu experts in Australia say people with flu symptoms should not rush to the doctor unless
they are very ill. Better to take paracetamol and try not to mingle with other people. If
infected people stay home for two or three days they are not going to infect others.

Some reports say the virus is now spreading in the community in Australia. “This is
going to be a marathon rather than a sprint.”

Border closure and strict quarantine are still options to envisage by PICTs if the case-fatality
rate by the evolving new influenza A/H1N1 becomes high. SPC must be ready to deal with this
situation, with a business continuity plan, and you must be ready individually too, in case
essential goods and services become unreliable or not available at all.