Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said on Sunday the nation's stringent approach to A/H1N1 flu will help prevent a major outbreak and deaths in the country.

Sixteen cases of the A/H1N1 flu have been confirmed in Australia, and the government expects that number to rise.

Health authorities last week ordered the closure of a school in Melbourne and two in Adelaide and put many students under quarantine as a precaution, which Rudd said was a "necessary" inconvenience.

"Our health officials are taking it exceptionally seriously," Rudd told reporters in Canberra.

"The inconvenience to the public is a necessary cost to prevent a major outbreak and to do everything possible to prevent any deaths," the prime minister added.

(Xinhua News Agency May 24, 2009)