Posted by
Nancy Nurse on Wednesday, September 27, 2006 10:49:37 AM
Bird flu man may have been drug courier
A
man who sparked a bird flu scare when he became ill on a flight to
Sydney from Vietnam may have been a drug courier whose illness was
caused by a heroin-filled condom bursting in his stomach.
Neither
the Australian Federal Police (AFP) nor the Ambulance Service of NSW
would comment on media reports the man was a drug courier trying to
smuggle heroin into Sydney.
Ambulance officers saved the man by
administering Narcan, which is used to treat heroin overdoses, the
reports on the Seven and Nine networks said.
The man, aged in
his 30s, was placed in quarantine after being stretchered off a Vietnam
Airlines flight which arrived at Sydney Airport from Hanoi via Ho Chi
Minh city about 8.30am (AEST).
NSW Health Communicable Diseases
director Jeremy McAnulty said initial tests at St George Hospital
showed it was very unlikely he had the deadly avian influenza.
NSW Health Minister John Hatzistergos said he did not want to comment on the matter as the AFP had become involved.
The AFP said the man was a person of interest but would not comment on the drug courier allegations.
"This man is now a person of interest to the AFP and investigations are continuing," a spokesman said.
Dr
McAnulty said the man's recent history of being in an area with
chickens in Vietnam and having a previous influenza-like illness had
sparked concern when he arrived in Sydney.
"It turns out that is a very unlikely diagnosis," Dr McAnulty told reporters.
"But the person's still being assessed in hospital.
"Our
concern is whether a person has a quarantinable disease or avian
influenza and at this stage it seems very unlikely that that's the
case."
Mildly unwell when he boarded the plane, the man had
become "difficult to rouse" when the flight touched down in Sydney, Dr
McAnulty said.
Quarantine officers wearing protective clothing
had boarded the aircraft, isolated the man and escorted him to a
waiting ambulance.
He said even if the man had contracted avian
flu, the chances of his travelling companion or other passengers being
infected were extremely low.
"At this stage we think that the likelihood that he'd be infectious to other people is extremely low," he said.
"However,
if that changes, then we have mechanisms in place to follow up other
passengers, but at this stage we don't believe (there is) any risk.
"...
the risk of person-to-person transmission is extraordinarily low.
There's only really been one or two of those possibilities around the
world in the past."
The federal government has developed a detailed plan to combat the flu if it reaches Australian shores.
About
50 million surgical masks and 40 million syringes have been stockpiled
along with mass quantities of anti-virals including Tamiflu, widely
regarded as the best drug for combating bird flu.
© 2006 AAP
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