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05. 11. 09. - 16:00

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05. 11. 09. - 16:00

Class suspended because of swine flu

By Lisa Chapman

An entire primary school class has been ordered to stay at home amid fears some of its students had come down with swine flu.

Authorities at a primary school in Pirka southwest of Graz, Styria, have closed the class until 10 November.

The provincial school council said yesterday (Weds) the measure was precautionary since school officials feared many of the 18 pupils in the class might get sick with swine flu. It added health officials would closely monitor the situation at the school.

It is the second school closing in Austria because of swine flu after East Tyrol authorities last week closed an entire school in Lienz for a week when 26 students were struck down with suspected swine flu.

Meanwhile, two swine flu victims in Salzburg and Vienna hospitals remain in critical but stable condition, their doctors said yesterday.

Salzburg provincial clinic staff said a 41-year-old German man there was still in an artificial coma but was breathing.

A spokesperson at Vienna’s Hanusch Hospital said doctors were cautiously optimistic that a young woman in intensive care at the hospital would eventually recover. The media have reported the woman, 18, is pregnant.

The news comes after an 11-year-old girl from South Tyrol, Italy, hospitalised in Innsbruck with swine flu died earlier this week after 10 days in intensive care.

Christoph Wenisch, an infections specialist at Vienna’s Kaiser Franz Josef Hospital, told Austrian broadcaster ORF after speaking with colleagues in Innsbruck that the girl’s immune system had run "out of control" after she suffered from a bacterial infection and was then infected by the A/H1N1 virus.

Martina Z. was the first person in Austria to die from swine flu. She had been at Innsbruck Children’s Clinic since 23 October.

Meanwhile, Austria’s 280,000 health-care personnel began to receive vaccinations against swine flu last week.

Vaccination of the 600,000 people at high risk – pregnant women and the chronically-ill – is set to begin on 9 November.

Health authorities say they have enough vaccine for 800,000 people to be vaccinated by the end of November.

The ministry has received 520,000 doses of pharmaceutical firm Baxter’s "Celvapan" swine flu vaccine and will receive additional doses at the rate of 200,000 a week.

Health-insurance funds will cover the cost of the vaccinations except for a fee of 4.90 Euros a dose. Doctors recommend that people receive two doses of the vaccine three weeks apart.

Austrian Times

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