The health threat revealed a lack of coordination at local and national levels, health experts say.

The most serious breach was the failure to prevent infected and exposed passengers from leaving the Pacific Dawn ship in Sydney that placed the entire Australian community at risk.

Australia has more than 250 confirmed cases of the flu (three in the ACT) as a result, with thousands more in quarantine including 141 in the ACT. Australia's chief medical officer, Professor Jim Bishop, said yesterday the swine flu symptoms were relatively mild. The greatest danger was for pregnant women and people with asthma or other pre-existing illnesses. He said there would be some deaths as a result of the flu with infection numbers not expected to plateau for weeks. The long-term danger would be that the flu would mutate into a more virulent strain.

He said people had no immunity against this flu strain, but plasma giant CSL was developing a vaccine and sufficient doses to vaccinate half the Australian population. Another shortcoming was confusion over quarantine procedures. In some cases patients and those exposed were isolated while those not showing symptoms were allowed to go out into the community.

There have been complaints of a lack of medical supplies to treat influenza in hospital and difficulty in accessing the flu hotline. Doctors have complained of shortages of gowns, specialised P2 masks and anti-viral drugs for themselves and their staff.

It has created doubts among medical experts as to Australia's capacity to deal with the swine flu should it take a turn for the worse.

Outgoing Australian Medical Association President Rosanna Capolingua said last week the shortages threatened the ability of the system to deal with a serious outbreak. Should the outbreak become more serious Australia could implement federal emergency plans to isolate the country from new sources of infection, including the banning of international flights and ships.

For more, pick up a copy of today's Canberra Times