An outbreak of swine flu in remote indigenous communities could lead to more deaths, a child health expert warns.
West Australian health officials will assess residents of the remote Aboriginal community of Kiwirrkurra this week after a 26-year-old resident died in Royal Adelaide Hospital on Friday, a day after he was diagnosed with swine flu. Authorities said the man also had a number of pre-existing chronic diseases
A paediatric respiratory physician who works closely with remote indigenous communities in Queensland and the Northern Territory, Anne Chang, says it's inevitable swine flu will reach remote Aboriginal communities.
''An outbreak in those communities would be quite severe a lot of children would probably need to be hospitalised and deaths are a possibility,'' Dr Chang said.
''Because these people are living in squalor conditions any outbreak is usually worse than elsewhere.''
Dr Chang said one in 70 Aboriginal children in remote communities across Australia suffered from chronic lung disease.
''The adults also have a high incidence of chronic lung disease, they also have other risk factors which includes diabetes, metabolic syndrome, heart and kidney disease,'' Dr Chang said.
The Australian Medical Association called yesterday for priority to be given to indigenous Australians when a vaccine became available.
The call followed news that another three indigenous teenagers with the virus had been hospitalised in Alice Springs with pneumonia-like symptoms.
The teenagers come from an area in the Northern Territory with links to the Kiwirrkurra community.
The Aboriginal Health Council announced that it had employed a consultant to help regional Aboriginal health centres deal with swine flu. Chief executive Mary Buckskin said the nurse would work with centres at Port Augusta, Port Lincoln, Coober Pedy and Ceduna in coming weeks.
More than 44,200 cases have been reported worldwide with 180 deaths. Australia's swine flu tally was 2462 as of yesterday, including 104 confirmed cases in the ACT.
A Melbourne woman on holiday in Bali may become Indonesia's first case of swine flu. The 23-year-old British woman, who lives in Melbourne, is in an isolation ward at Bali's Sanglah Public Hospital awaiting test results.
The head of H1N1 virus management at Sanglah, Agus Somia, said, ''She said she'd had a fever with coughing and sneezing while she was in Australia last week. But because she felt better she decided to go to Bali with her friends for a holiday.
''When she arrived in Bali her condition worsened.''
The woman is being treated with Tamiflu while she awaits test results that are expected to be ready within the next two days. AAP
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