Asia suspected swine flu cases rise

WELLINGTON (AFP) — South Korea's health ministry said it is investigating five suspected swine flu infections in addition to a "probable" case announced the previous day.

The ministry said earlier Wednesday it had nine suspected cases but announced later that tests on four of the people were negative.

The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the people with suspected infections had recently returned from trips to Mexico or the United States and showed flu-like symptoms such as coughing and fever.

The woman described as a probable case had come back Sunday from a trip to Mexico. Media reports said the 51-year-old victim is a Catholic nun who is recovering well after anti-viral treatments.

South Korea Tuesday designated Mexico as a "travel restricted area," urging its citizens to cancel or delay trips there.

The agriculture ministry has said it would immediately ban live pig imports from North America as a precaution. Some 1,562 pigs were imported from North America for breeding last year.

Mexico has revised downwards its confirmed death toll from swine flu to seven, from 20, Health Minister Jose Angel Cordova told reporters.

New Zealand announced three more likely swine flu cases on Wednesday, taking the country's total of probable and confirmed infections to 14.

Officials said another 31 suspected cases were being investigated and that 179 people were in isolation.

With international concern mounting over how to contain the outbreak, New Zealand's health ministry said all three new cases were people who had travelled to Mexico or North America recently.

"Because of their travel history... we need to assume that this is swine flu," said Julia Peters of the The Auckland Regional Public Health Service.

All 14 people have contracted influenza A -- the virus that causes swine flu. Three of the 14 were confirmed to have the disease on Tuesday evening, while the remaining cases are thought to be probable swine flu infections.

Officials said the three new cases included two people who were not part of the New Zealand high school group that had recently visited Mexico and that accounted for the country's initial cases.

Australia is testing 91 people for deadly swine flu and has introduced new powers to isolate and detain suspected sufferers to prevent a major outbreak, officials said Wednesday.

Governor-General Quentin Bryce agreed to sweeping new detention and surveillance powers for health officials following a request from Health Minister Nicola Roxon late Tuesday as swine flu spread across the world.

Roxon said that the new measures, ranging from extreme steps such as detaining or isolating for surveillance suspected carriers to disinfecting aircraft after they arrive from overseas, were so far purely precautionary.

"It means that we can act nationally, we can act quickly," she told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation on Wednesday.

Swine flu has been put on the country's list of quarantinable diseases, meaning that if suspected sufferers refuse to cooperate with orders to isolate themselves, they can be detained against their will.

"(The powers) give the chief medical officer the power to change circumstances particularly at our airports and ports, the most extreme of those would be for example isolating someone perhaps in their own home."

"We want to make sure that all the powers are there, that we are ready to act if this takes a dramatic turn for the worse," she said.

Some 91 people displaying flu symptoms were being tested for the potentially deadly virus in Australia, but there are no confirmed cases of swine flu so far, Roxon's office said.

Singapore Wednesday deployed thermal scanners at its sea port and said it will quarantine residents returning from Mexico, ramping up measures against swine flu.

The city state is already using thermal scanners to screen people arriving by air and from Wednesday sea passengers will also undergo temperature checks, authorities said.

Singapore founding father Lee Kuan Yew said the government would "take no chances" following lessons learned from the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) health scare that killed 33 people here in 2003.

"I don't know how many of our people are doing business in Mexico, but if they come back they will be quarantined," Lee, a former prime minister and now an influential member of the cabinet, was quoted as saying in The Straits Times.