Athletes and spectators will be encouraged to get vaccinated against the H1N1 flu before travelling to next year’s Winter Olympics in Vancouver, an official has said.

The hundreds of volunteers and staff scheduled to work during the February Games are also being urged to get vaccinated as part of Canada’s national immunization effort, which began this week.

An estimated 5,500 athletes and team officials are scheduled to be in Vancouver next year for the 17 days of competitions and they will be joined by thousands of media and spectators from around the world.

Health authorities are concerned young Australians heading to Queenstown on ski holidays might not admit to feeling unwell, thereby potentially placing others at risk of swine flu. Thousands of young skiers and snowboarders arrive in the resort from Australia each winter and there is concern they might not want to ruin their week-long party by going into voluntary quarantine.

The ski season will expose South Islanders to a potential swine-flu outbreak as thousands of Australians take to New Zealand slopes. In many parts of Australia, health authorities have admitted the influenza A (H1N1) virus is beyond their control. So far, the only confirmed New Zealand cases have been picked up at the borders.