MANILA, 1 July 2009, 1600 hrs—Australia’s Royal Flying Doctor Service has stepped in to help evacuate indigenous Australians from remote northern communities as health officials warn that the indigenous population is more vulnerable than others to Pandemic H1N1 2009. With Aboriginal settlements often hundreds of kilometers along dirt roads from the nearest medical center, people with influenza symptoms and underlying medical conditions are being flown out for treatment.
Indigenous people are considered more at risk from the H1N1 influenza strain as many have health problems such as morbid obesity, diabetes and liver disease, the government says. Radio adverts translated into six indigenous languages offer advice on recognizing symptoms and what people should do if they fall sick.
The number of cases of Pandemic H1N1 2009 in the Western Pacific Region rose to close to 10 000 as Japan, Singapore, New Zealand and Hong Kong (China) all reported relatively significant increases. Japan's total increased by 72 to 1284, Singapore's by 72 to 701, that of Hong Kong (China) by 59 to 785 and New Zealand's by 58 to 711.
The total of laboratory-confirmed cases for the Western Pacific Region, as of 1 July, was more than 9800, with eight deaths (in brackets besides the case numbers below). A number of countries are now into a mitigation phase and are no longer testing all suspected cases. Some countries are not reporting on a daily basis.
- Australia 4090 (7)
- Brunei Darussalam 42
- Cambodia 6
- China 810
- Hong Kong (China) 785
- Macao (China) 26
- Taiwan (China) 61
- Fiji 2
- Japan 1284
- Lao PDR 3
- Malaysia 112
- New Zealand 711
- Papua New Guinea 1
- Philippines 861 (1)
- Republic of Korea 202
- Samoa 1
- Singapore 701
- Vanuatu 2
- Viet Nam 123
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