By Clare Swinney
It was reported by TV3 that the World Health Organization’s (WHO) lab in Melbourne has now confirmed that swine flu is present in New Zealand.
Three test results back from the WHO lab for the Rangitoto College students who tested positive for influenza A, have also tested positive for the swine flu, making New Zealand the sixth country to officially confirm that it has cases of people infected with the virus.
The United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization announced on Monday that it was dispatching a team to inspect pig farms in Mexico in an attempt to determine whether the new strain was circulating amongst pigs and then trace a link to humans.
While the virus is designated “swine flu,” it is more precisely labelled swine-avian-human flu as it combines pig, bird and human viruses, leading to speculation that it is not a product of nature, but of a laboratory.