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TOKYO - A JAPANESE girl returning home on Tuesday from the United States was being tested for swine flu after preliminary tests showed she had type-A influenza, local media reported.
The girl, younger than 10, was quarantined after arriving at Osaka's Kansai International Airport on a flight from San Francisco and was being treated for fever and coughs, reports said, citing the health ministry.Ministry officials could not immediately confirm the reports.
About 15 people who sat near the girl, who had visited Los Angeles and Las Vegas, had also been quarantined until the girl's test result was available, the reports said.
Japan has yet to confirm any cases of the new (A)H1N1 influenza, also called swine flu, although several patients have tested positive for what turned out to be a different strain of the influenza A virus.
Japan is on alert for the virus during one of its busiest travel periods of the year, the 'Golden Week' of public holidays when tens of millions of people crowd trains and airports to visit family and friends.
Fears of swine flu has discouraged some Tokyo doctors from seeing potential patients, local media reported Tuesday.
Since Saturday, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government received 92 reports of physicians refusing to see feverish patients, the reports said.
Some of the complaints said a patient was refused care because the person worked at Narita Airport, Japan's main international airport, the reports said.
'Most patients with feverish conditions want to see medical professionals mainly because they are only worried. We ask (doctors) to act calmly,' a senior Tokyo official told national broadcaster NHK.
Several cases of suspected swine flu have tested negative in recent days, according to the health ministry and local authorities. These included two women in their 40s who had visited the United States and an American baby who arrived in Japan on a military flight. -- AFP
The girl, younger than 10, was quarantined after arriving at Osaka's Kansai International Airport on a flight from San Francisco and was being treated for fever and coughs, reports said, citing the health ministry.Ministry officials could not immediately confirm the reports.
About 15 people who sat near the girl, who had visited Los Angeles and Las Vegas, had also been quarantined until the girl's test result was available, the reports said.
Japan has yet to confirm any cases of the new (A)H1N1 influenza, also called swine flu, although several patients have tested positive for what turned out to be a different strain of the influenza A virus.
Japan is on alert for the virus during one of its busiest travel periods of the year, the 'Golden Week' of public holidays when tens of millions of people crowd trains and airports to visit family and friends.
Fears of swine flu has discouraged some Tokyo doctors from seeing potential patients, local media reported Tuesday.
Since Saturday, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government received 92 reports of physicians refusing to see feverish patients, the reports said.
Some of the complaints said a patient was refused care because the person worked at Narita Airport, Japan's main international airport, the reports said.
'Most patients with feverish conditions want to see medical professionals mainly because they are only worried. We ask (doctors) to act calmly,' a senior Tokyo official told national broadcaster NHK.
Several cases of suspected swine flu have tested negative in recent days, according to the health ministry and local authorities. These included two women in their 40s who had visited the United States and an American baby who arrived in Japan on a military flight. -- AFP
