Swine flu: Family's anxious wait for follow-up

Samshun Nisha with her two boys after they showed flu symptoms last night at Auckland airport. Photo / Greg Bowker

A sick family which returned from a holiday in the United States yesterday were still waiting last night for health officials to give them Tamiflu and take swabs to test for influenza A.

Samshun Nisha, from Wattle Cove in Auckland, was told to go home and stay put when her sons displayed flu-like symptoms at the airport yesterday.

The family arrived on a 5.30am flight from Los Angeles, where they had been visiting friends and Disneyland.

Her sons Arif Hussain, 12, and Aaron Hussain, 6, were sneezing, coughing and had runny noses that they had developed that morning. The family was fitted with masks.

They were told a health official would visit them in their home to give them Tamiflu and take swabs to test for influenza A.
But last night they had heard nothing, and the boys were starting to feel worse.

Mrs Nisha said the boys had been frightened to be confronted by masked doctors when they stepped off their flight.

Their symptoms became more pronounced as the day progressed and Arif started to develop a sore throat.

Mrs Nisha herself was anxious because she had developed a sore throat, headache and nausea.

Ngaire Buchanan, incident controller on behalf of the Auckland Regional Public Health Service, told the Herald the greatest resources had been pulled to make sure all passengers that had displayed symptoms were seen to.

"All cases are in a priority system and we will get to all passengers as soon as we can," she said.

Sixteen passengers experiencing flu-like symptoms were detected at Auckland International Airport between 11pm on Tuesday night and 10am yesterday - and of those, 11 met the criteria for suspected swine flu.

Six of those 11 were treated with Tamiflu and sent home to remain in isolation. Because the remaining five passengers were in transit and could not be sent home, they were sent to Middlemore Hospital, where they were placed in isolation and treated with Tamiflu before being moved to hotels or other premises.

Other quarantined people told the Herald of their concerns over the level of guidance they received from health authorities after travelling on the flight with people who tested positive for swine flu.

Three people who travelled on the same flight as the confirmed swine flu victims were placed in quarantine yesterday after being visited by health officials who tracked them down in Samoa five days after arriving in Auckland on the NZ1 flight.

New Zealander Linda Laupue and two colleagues had been at a conference in Los Angeles and were in transit in Auckland for the day before flying to Samoa at 8pm on Saturday night.

She was shocked when her mother, who is in New Zealand, sent her a text message to inform her that people from the NZ1 flight had been tested for swine flu, and even more so when she realised that she and her colleagues were three of the 18 that the airline had been unable to trace because they could not read the details on their forms.

"I find that hard to believe that all three of us can't write properly," Mrs Laupue said.

She worried about what would happen if the virus hit Samoa, as there was no Tamiflu at the local pharmacy.

Yesterday the three were quarantined after having their temperature taken by health representatives who visited them at work.

A father and two children from Auckland who also travelled on flight NZ1 with the Rangitoto students were also mystified they had not been traced by the Ministry of Health.

"We live in Auckland and have not changed our address or phone number ... The government couldn't track down someone who has lived at the same address for seven years?" said the wife, who had mingled with Rangitoto College students at the airport.

She said none of the family showed flu symptoms.

It is believed passengers from the NZ1 flight still had not been traced last night, but health officials were unable to tell the Herald what that number might be.