Tweet
Tokyo Hospital Bans Visits By Kansai Travelers Over Swine Flu Fears
(Mainichi)Tokyo's Showa University Hospital has banned people who have recently been in Osaka and Hyogo prefectures from visiting patients, due to fears of swine flu spreading, it has been learned.
The hospital, located in Tokyo's Shinagawa Ward, implemented the ban on May 18, after Osaka and Hyogo prefectures were added to the list of regions where the virus has emerged. It has placed signs in six locations including the hospital entrance to inform visitors of the policy.
The Tokyo Metropolitan Government's infectious disease control division has suggested the hospital is overreacting.
"We have never heard of a total ban on visits. It is perhaps an overreaction," a division representative said.
The hospital's signs displayed a message saying, "We ask people who have been in Hyogo Prefecture (Kobe, Ashiya cities) and Osaka Prefecture (Toyonaka, Suita, Ibaraki cities) within the past seven days to refrain from visiting."
Commenting on the ban, a hospital representative said, "Under current conditions where the route of infection in Japan can't be identified, there is a possibility that people who come to the hospital from Hyogo and Osaka will bring the virus with them. To protect our patients, we have no option but to have people refrain from making visits."
After the hospital was interviewed by the Mainichi on Friday, it removed specific geographic areas from its signs and changed part of the notice to read, "We ask for your assistance in preventing patients from becoming infected," but officials said the policy on banning visits would not be changed.
Shigeki Hayashi of the National Hospital Organization's Disaster Medical Center, who is a member of the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry's team of specialists handling the new influenza, said the hospital's move was not necessarily an overreaction.
"There are people in Saitama Prefecture who became infected after traveling to the Kansai region, and there is a chance that they will go to visit people in hospital. Considering that the hospital is looking after the weak, one cannot really say that its desire to prevent infections to the greatest degree possible is an overreaction," he said.
Click here for the original Japanese story
(Mainichi Japan) May 23, 2009
(Mainichi)Tokyo's Showa University Hospital has banned people who have recently been in Osaka and Hyogo prefectures from visiting patients, due to fears of swine flu spreading, it has been learned.
The hospital, located in Tokyo's Shinagawa Ward, implemented the ban on May 18, after Osaka and Hyogo prefectures were added to the list of regions where the virus has emerged. It has placed signs in six locations including the hospital entrance to inform visitors of the policy.
The Tokyo Metropolitan Government's infectious disease control division has suggested the hospital is overreacting.
"We have never heard of a total ban on visits. It is perhaps an overreaction," a division representative said.
The hospital's signs displayed a message saying, "We ask people who have been in Hyogo Prefecture (Kobe, Ashiya cities) and Osaka Prefecture (Toyonaka, Suita, Ibaraki cities) within the past seven days to refrain from visiting."
Commenting on the ban, a hospital representative said, "Under current conditions where the route of infection in Japan can't be identified, there is a possibility that people who come to the hospital from Hyogo and Osaka will bring the virus with them. To protect our patients, we have no option but to have people refrain from making visits."
After the hospital was interviewed by the Mainichi on Friday, it removed specific geographic areas from its signs and changed part of the notice to read, "We ask for your assistance in preventing patients from becoming infected," but officials said the policy on banning visits would not be changed.
Shigeki Hayashi of the National Hospital Organization's Disaster Medical Center, who is a member of the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry's team of specialists handling the new influenza, said the hospital's move was not necessarily an overreaction.
"There are people in Saitama Prefecture who became infected after traveling to the Kansai region, and there is a chance that they will go to visit people in hospital. Considering that the hospital is looking after the weak, one cannot really say that its desire to prevent infections to the greatest degree possible is an overreaction," he said.
Click here for the original Japanese story
(Mainichi Japan) May 23, 2009
