Melbourne emerges world’s swine flu capital: Repo

With cases of H1N1 virus soaring in Melbourne, the city has emerged as the “swine-flu capital of the world”, a report said on Saturday.

Australiaat present has 1,006 confirmed cases of swine flu, of which 874 were detected in the state ofVictoria concentrated mostly in the north and west of its capital Melbourne, according to the health department.

The latest figures from the World Health Organisation says that the US has 11,131 confirmed cases of swine flu and Mexico has 5,029, ‘The Australian’ newspaper reported.

“With the state’s comparatively small population, this means swine flu occurs in about one in 9,139 Victorians -- more than double the one in 21,860 Mexicans with the virus and triple the one in 27,295 people with swine flu in the US”, the report said.

Health Minister Nicola Roxon said on Friday that the increased number of confirmed swine flu cases inVictoria was a credit to the government´s testing procedures.

“Now that is actually a compliment to Victoria’s health system, and I don’t think it should be turned on its head to indicate there is some other reason for its spread,” she said.

Following a directive of National Health Protection Committee, other states and territories this week implemented voluntary quarantine measures for children returning from Victoria or greater Melbourne.

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