A primary school in Melbourne's inner north has been shut after three brothers — two of whom attend the school — returned from a trip to Disneyland with swine flu.
Clifton Hill Primary School principal Geoff Warren told TODAY the decision to close the school for today and tomorrow was made by state health and education authorities at 10pm yesterday.
The youngest brother, who is aged nine, was the first identified with the H1N1 virus about 10am yesterday, Mr Warren said.
Health authorities rushed to contain any spread of the virus, quarantining the boy, his family and 26 classmates at Clifton Hill Primary, and treating all with anti-viral drugs Tamiflu and Relenza.
Federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon said closing the school was a necessary precaution to contain the spread of swine flu.
"We've seen around the world that schools are places where the disease can spread easily ... we know this is a disease which is highly infectious," she told TODAY.
(Watch more: School closed until Monday)
The nine-year-old boy's two older brothers, aged 10 and 12, tested positive to the virus late yesterday. Both are at home because they are not ill enough to require hospital treatment.
The 10-year-old also attends Clifton Hill Primary.
Mr Warren said he has spent the morning phoning parents to tell them not to send their children to school today.
"People have handled it, I say brilliantly, to be honest," Mr Warren told TODAY.
"They've been calm, sensible, and they've listened to advice."
The three infected brothers returned from a family holiday in Los Angeles on May 12.
The 12-year-old, who attends a secondary college in Melbourne's north, has not been at school long enough during his infectious stage to warrant quarantine or anti-viral medication for his classmates.
Mr Warren said the two primary school students attended school for only one day during their seven-day potential infectious period.
"The children were in their infectious period only at school for the Monday of this week, and the Department of Health are very, very confident it was only that level of exposure — the Monday," the principal told TODAY.
No other students have shown symptoms of swine flu, he said.
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