In order to fight against the swine flu, France has put a series of mesures into place, via its Inter-ministerial Emergency Committee : prevention campaign, cancelled school trips, stocks of masks…

Here are the main mesures taken by the French, where quatrex swine flu has been confirmed , since the passage to alert level 5 of the national fight against a flu pandemic.

The « operational conduct » of the crisis is now in the hands of the Ministry of the Interior who is coordinating the implementation of envisaged methods by way of an interministerial emergency committee

Travelling * Planes coming in from Mexico shall arrive at Roissy airport into a special zone from Tuesday onwards in order to avoid contact with other travellers. * Information and welcoming of travellers coming back from Mexico will be reinforced and medical and psychological support shall be offered. Passengers must fill out individual information which would allow identification of persons who have been in contact with sick people if necessary. * The Minister of Education has recommended that all school trips to or transiting through Mexico or New York should be cancelled. Four of these trips have already been cancelled. * All professionals working with children, and children returning from Mexico, including babies of less than a year old, must not have any contact with newborn babies for 7 days. * Anyone working in airport zones who are in contact with travellers returning from Mexico must wear FFP2 masks.

Mask stocks and Antiviruses

* Mask stocks and antiviruses (Tamiflu and Relenza), that had been centralised before, are to be progressivley distributed to hospitals. The Hôpitaux de Paris have been delivered 10 500 boxes of Tamiflu for adults and now have 19 palets of 125 000 masks. * An inventory of state supplies of masks and antiviruses has been done and this shall continue in the regions and private operators.

Information

* On Tuesday, a