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Global panic as swine flu spreads to Europe
(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-04-27 21:45

Global panic as swine flu spreads to Europe
US Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano makes remarks to the media as White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs listens during a briefing by Obama administration officials on possible emergency plans for the outbreak of swine flu in the United States, in Washington, April 26, 2009.  [Agencies]
US President Barack Obama has ordered a "very active, aggressive, and coordinated response," said White House homeland security advisor John Brennan.

Napolitano said the government would release a quarter of the national stockpile of 50 million doses of the Tamiflu and Relenza anti-viral drugs.

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The Defense Department, she added, has procured seven million treatment courses of Tamiflu.

After China, Thailand, Indonesia and Russia banned US pork imports, US officials insisted it was virtually impossible to catch swine flu from eating meat as long as it is properly cooked.

Authorities across the region, which has in recent years been at the forefront of the SARS and bird flu epidemics, stepped up checks at airports and urged the public to be on guard for symptoms.

Nine students and a teacher from New Zealand who recently travelled to Mexico are "likely" to have contracted swine fever, Health Minister Tony Ryall said.

Two Australians admitted to hospital after returning from Mexico finally tested negative. But Australian National University epidemiology specialist professor Paul Kelly said swine flu is more worrying than bird flu because it is spread much more readily between humans.

Thai and Indonesian authorities installed thermal scanners at airports to monitor passengers. Russia said it was monitoring all flights from North and South America. Malaysia said that travellers from the United States were being watched.

Spain screened all passengers on flights from Mexico.

The confirmed Spanish case in the city of Almensa was among 10 under observation. Two patients in Scotland were also being watched.

Nine people in Colombia and one in Brazil were under observation with flu symptoms.

In the Middle East, a 26-year-old Israeli was hospitalized in Netanya. All those under observation had recently been in Mexico.

Swiss pharmaceutical group Roche said it was ready to send out more stocks of Tamiflu, which it manufactures, but stock markets around the world took fright over the outbreak.

Airline stocks in particular plunged on worries that governments could impose travel restrictions.

"Swine flu is ripping through the markets creating uncertainty in its wake," said Manoj Ladwa, senior trader at ETX Capital in London.