Monday 4 May 2009
New member of the team!
A BABY who may have infected other children at childcare is now being tested for swine flu.
Tasmanian Director of Public Health Chrissie Pickin says she has ordered tests on the eight-month-old to be completed "as quickly as possible''.
The baby was in childcare when it would have been infectious on Thursday and Friday, Dr Pickin said.
"We are providing advice to the child care centre involved,'' she said.
"As a standard precaution we are advising that any child or staff member who is unwell with a fever and respiratory symptoms should be excluded from attendance until they have fully recovered.''
The baby's test results would hopefully be returned within 24 hours, Dr Pickin said. No one in Australia has tested positive for the virus.
The baby and its parents returned from Canada on April 26.
Meanwhile, a third Australian in Britain, journalist Kate Corbett, has tested positive for the potentially deadly virus, ABC radio reports.
Ms Corbett, 29, earlier tested positive for Influenza A after returning from a trip to Mexico, but had to wait longer to find out if it was the H1N1 strain.
British health authorities have now told her she has the virus.
"They asked me what airline I flew home with, what my flight numbers were and they're going to get in contact with all the people who sat within a metre of me," she said on ABC radio.
Her flatmate, boyfriend and sister were now being tested for the H1N1 virus, ABC said.
Two other Australians in the UK are known to have the virus.
They are a 29-year-old Sydney builder, who moved to the UK from Australia less than a month ago and doesn't want to be named, and fellow Sydney man Mark Robertson, 23.
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