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This swine flu is getting worse they have raised the alert and it is now spreading through Austraila CSL is mentioned as having a contract with the government?

Second School Closed in Australia; 11 Cases Confirmed

By Gemma Daley and Simeon Bennett

May 22 (Bloomberg) -- Australia updated its pandemic alert as authorities closed a second school and reported the first human-to-human swine flu infection among 11 confirmed cases.

Australia is considering ordering production of a swine flu vaccine from CSL Ltd. to protect the nation of 21 million people, the government said separately today. Eynesbury College in Adelaide was closed for at least a week after a 15-year-old student was confirmed to have the virus. It followed the closure of a Melbourne school yesterday after three brothers were diagnosed with the infection.

“The raising of the alert level to contain recognizes that Australia has a small number of swine flu cases” and one infection that occurred locally, Health Minister Nicola Roxon said in an e-mailed statement. “The contain phase assists the government to respond appropriately as the situation evolves.”

“Contain” is the third-highest level on a pandemic list published on the government’s Web site. The next level, “sustain,” means the virus is established and spreading. An order for vaccines against the H1N1 virus is “under active consideration,” Australia’s health department said in an e-mail today.

Melbourne-based CSL, the only manufacturer of flu vaccine in the Southern Hemisphere, has a contract to supply 90 percent of the Australian government’s orders for a pandemic flu vaccine, said Rachel David, a company spokeswoman, by phone.

Virus Spreads

Roxon said Australia is testing 28 more suspected cases of swine flu, which the World Health Organization says has caused 85 deaths. Since April 24, the virus formally known as H1N1, has extended its reach from Mexico and the U.S. to South America, Europe, the Middle East, Asia and New Zealand.

“None of us working in the field of flu thought it was ever possible to keep H1N1 swine flu out of Australia,” Raina MacIntyre, professor of infectious diseases epidemiology at Sydney’s the University of New South Wales, said in a statement. “I think we will be activating all our plans to try and contain the epidemic.”

Students in the affected Australian schools’ classes have been quarantined for six days and given anti-viral drugs, Roxon told the Australian Broadcasting Corp.

The number of confirmed swine flu cases globally totaled 11,034 in 41 countries, according to the WHO’s latest tally.

To contact the reporters on this story: Gemma Daley in Canberra at [email protected];