Federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon says Australia now has 3,519 officially confirmed cases of swine flu including 168 people who have needed hospital treatment - 36 people remain in hospital including 13 in intensive care and 5 swine flu related deaths. Ms Roxon says most of those who have been hospitalised were people with existing conditions.

Chief Medical Officer Jim Bishop has released guidelines for the treatment of indigenous Australians, who might be particularly susceptible and the government has sent anti-viral medication to rural and remote areas to treat indigenous Australians, if necessary but he says in general, the use of anti-viral medication will be decided on a case-by-case basis.

Federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon says as Australia is now in the protect phase, swine flu health efforts are focusing on protecting those most vulnerable and the death of the aboriginal man has also prompted a warning from World Health Organisation expert Professor John Mackenzie, that Aboriginal people are at serious risk from swine flu.

Professor Mackenzie, from WHO ™s international health regulations committee, says it is inevitable that more Australians will die from the virus and Aboriginal people were more at risk because of the prevalence of diabetes and other chronic diseases among them which means the virus poses a greater threat.