UPDATE 2: Malta denies link to German H1N1 flu cases

Information held by the German authorities about an H1N1 patient who had reportedly been to Malta recently was only preliminary and no detailed information was available yet, Parliamentary Secretary Mario Galea said today.

Reuters quoted medical authorities in Duesseldorf as saying this morning that 30 cases of the H1N1 flu had been reported at a school in the city, the most concentrated outbreak of the virus so far in Europe's largest economy. One of the students had recently been to Malta.

Mr Galea insisted that Malta had no reported cases of the virus.

"We are in constant contact with the German authorities but their information is only preliminary. They have told us they still need to look into this student's itinerary and who he could have been in contact with, and where," Mr Galea told timesofmalta.com.

The parliamentary secretary, who is heading the government's preparations against any outbreak of the virus, reiterated that the Maltese authorities investigated even the slightest suspicion of the flu, but nothing has turned up.

He also pointed out that the Health Department had today started mailing to all households an information leaflet on precautions which the people could take against H1N1. The leaflet was printed 10 days ago but its mailing was postponed amid fears that it would be thrown away by people as it got mixed up with the election mail shots.

The health ministry in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia was reported saying this morning that the majority of the cases at a Japanese school in the city were detected yesterday evening.

Additional confirmed infections were likely to emerge, said Kathrin Rebbe, a spokesman for the ministry.

Parents of the infected children and people who had been in contact with them would be tested today, said Heiko Schneitler, head of the city health's authority. Most of the children affected were Japanese, he said.

The children are now in quarantine, he added.

The school has been closed until the end of next week, said Hiromi Kida, a senior official at the school.

Duesseldorf is home to a large Japanese community.

Rebbe at the NRW health ministry said four additional cases of H1N1 had been been detected at a school in nearby Cologne.

Germany had 86 confirmed cases of H1N1 prior to the school infections, according to the Robert Koch Institute, the country's federal agency for infectious diseases.

VIRUS ALERT LEVEL RAISED

Meanwhile, after the WHO this afternoon declared declared the H1N1 virus a pandemic, the Health Pandemic Committee and National Strategic Pandemic Committee met to review the state of local preparations and the possible impact of the virus on Malta.

The authorities reiterated that no cases had been reported in Malta.