swine flu rate of increase in australia, page-20

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Australia's pandemic alert level is PROTECT.

The decision to move to the PROTECT phase was made by the Australian Government on the advice of the Australian Chief Medical Officer and the Australian Health Protection Committee, which includes all state and territory governments.

PROTECT is considered a measured and proportionate health response to the risk that Human Swine Influenza poses to the Australian community.

Key elements of the PROTECT phase are:

Identification and early treatment of vulnerable groups or those with moderate or severe disease.
Control of outbreaks, including diagnostic testing in high-risk institutional settings, such as special schools.
A refocusing of testing for the virus to institutional outbreaks and people with severe or moderate disease. This will help to monitor the behaviour of the virus.
Voluntary home isolation for those who have mild illness. However, contacts will not be placed into quarantine or provided with antivirals.
Antivirals will not be provided with mild disease, unless they belong to a vulnerable group or are from a high risk setting. The previous approach to the dispensing of antiviral focussed on reducing transmission