Heroin, not bird flu?

Bird flu man may have been drug courier



September 27, 2006 - 11:49AM


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
Brought to you by aap