adio News

Radio News - Segment 1 - Day Zero

Announcer

In breaking news, it has just been confirmed that 120 rural villagers in central Indonesia died from a mutated avian bird flu influenza virus. The first fatality is believed to have occurred 7 days ago and it has taken 9 days for laboratories in Hong Kong and the United States to confirm the cause of death.

Following this confirmation, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has raised the worldwide pandemic influenza alert level to Phase 4. This indicates that human to human transmission of an influenza virus has occurred in small clusters.

According to WHO spokesman, Professor Talmud al-Hari, the virus has a slow rate of transmission which suggests that it is not well adapted to humans. [Accented voice] "Countries must not over-react to the raised Alert level. This mutated avian bird flu virus appears not to be well adapted to humans and remains highly localized, so it should be possible to delay or contain its spread."

A spokesman for the Australian Minister for Health stated that Australia will consider any requests by the World Health Organisation for anti-virals from Australia 's national stockpile, once the international stockpile has been consumed.

Australia 's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has released a Travel Advisory for Indonesia which strongly advises Australians to reconsider their need to travel to Indonesia . Australian nationals living in Indonesia who are concerned for their safety, should consider departing.

Radio News - Segment 2, Day 1

Announcer

Border screening for influenza symptoms has commenced at all Australian airports for passengers arriving from oversees. This follows the outbreak of human to human transmission of bird flu influenza in Indonesia . The screening involves each passenger's temperature being assessed by thermal scanners and thermometers. People with elevated temperatures are held in quarantine until the reason for their high temperature can be determined.

According to the Chief Health Officer, there is no reason to believe that the influenza virus in central Indonesia has the potential to spread to but border screening is being carried out as a prevention and to give practice to front line screening staff.

The Federal Opposition's spokesman on national security has called for borders to be closed immediately to prevent the infection from reaching Australia . [Refined voice] "It is irresponsible of the Federal Government to keep the borders open when there is a chance that an infected person could enter this country and infect millions of us. This is just another example of putting the special interest of exporters, the tourism sector and big business ahead of the security and health of every Australian."

Radio News - Segment 3, Day 5

Announcer

The Chief Health Officer has announced the roll-out of a national influenza pandemic awareness strategy today. The strategy includes the need for every Australian to be vigilant for influenza symptoms in their family and work colleagues. The strategy will involve an information booklet being delivered to every person's house, TV, radio and newspaper advertisements, and fact sheet distributed to all schools and other places where large numbers of people come together.

The union representing front line health and quarantine workers at airports, ports and in designated influenza hospitals today complained that their members were not confident they would get access to anti-virals medicines as promised in the Australian Pandemic Plan. [Accented voice] "We are getting mixed messages from various authorities. Some are saying that our members will get them as a preventative medicine once a large influenza outbreak occurs overseas, and others are telling us that our members will only get the antivirals if they get sick. If we don't get a commitment soon that our members will be looked after, we won't be continue to do the dangerous work of screening incoming passengers and caring for the sick."

Radio News - Segment 4, Day 22

Announcer

The number of influenza deaths declined in the ACT yesterday, for the first time since the Government declared Pandemic Level 6B. However, the casualty figures only reflect those deaths recorded at the two influenza clinics and not those who have died at their residences, said the ACT Chief Minister, John Stanhope. [Stanhope's voice] "We are cautious about reporting that the pandemic has peaked because we have had false dawns before, which have damaged people's confidence and that is a situation we don't want to repeat."

Meanwhile, the Food and Grocery Council has reported that many supermarkets are now re-stocked with most basic food stuffs although fresh meat is unavailable in a number of urban areas. [Another voice] "The damage suffered by many supermarkets from panic buying several weeks ago has mostly been fixed and the continuing law enforcement and military presence will ensure that shortages should not occur again".

Radio News - Segment 5, Day 76

Announcer

Today the Prime Minister addressed the people of Australia to thank them for their cooperation during the national pandemic tragedy. [Refined voice] "We are a nation grieving for those we all lost during the last four months. Families have been devastated, communities shattered and the nation shocked. While the days of mass fatalities are over, the damage is far from done. We are looking at a world where global trade has collapsed, unemployment is high and many industries have shut down. Only together can we rebuild and we owe it to these who perished to make our nation proud."

The Prime Minister announced a series of rebuilding measures including a national reconstruction summit with business and community leaders, on-going debt relief for eligible businesses and immediate development of a plan to boost economic growth.