Australia has recorded its first confirmed case of the new strain of flu but the woman who tested positive has made a full recovery, health officials said today.
The new H1N1 flu has killed its first patient in Canada, making it the third country after Mexico and the United States to report a death from the virus that has sickened more than 3,000 people in 27 countries.
The Australian woman had flown into the Queensland state capital Brisbane from Los Angeles on Thursday, said Queensland's chief medical officer Dr Jeanette Young.
The unidentified woman from New South Wales state had felt flu symptoms while in the United States in April and returned a "weak positive" for the H1N1 virus after samples were tested at a World Health Organisation laboratory in Australia, Ms Young said.
She said other passengers on board the same Qantas flight were being contacted, although the woman was not thought to have been infectious when she boarded the plane.
"She was screened and swabbed at the airport, given a mask and went to stay with her family, who live in Brisbane, while awaiting test results," Young said in a statement.
"Early this morning the World Health Organisation laboratory ... confirmed the case was human swine flu influenza," she said.
The global spread of the virus has kept alive concern over a possible pandemic, although scientists say this strain does not appear more deadly than seasonal flu.
Reuters