Japan Reports 32 More Cases Of Swine Flu; Total At 44

[sharon sanders]

via email -

Japan Reports 32 More Cases Of Swine Flu; Total At 44
2009-05-17 12:00:15.176 GMT



KOBE, Japan (AFP)--Japan said Sunday that 32 more people had tested positive
for swine flu, bringing the total number of cases to 44 amid fears the virus
has a foothold in the west of the country.
The latest group of flu sufferers included 29 high school students in Osaka
prefecture and the city of Kobe in neighboring Hyogo prefecture, where eight
students were already ill from the virus, a health ministry official told AFP.
A college student in his 20s, a teacher in his 40s, and a woman in her 50s
also tested positive for A(H1N1) influenza, he said.
"Now the number of cases of domestic infection has risen to 40," the official
said.
Four other Japanese - a school teacher and three students who flew to Tokyo
from Canada via Detroit - contracted the virus overseas earlier this month and
have since recovered, bringing the country's total cases to 44.
"We quickly need to collect information on the current infection," said Chief
Cabinet Secretary Takeo Kawamura, the top government spokesman.
"We are studying how to prevent the spread of infection," Kawamura told
reporters, adding that the cabinet would hold an emergency meeting on Monday to
discuss the issue.
Prime Minister Taro Aso has called on the country to remain calm.
But Shigeru Omi, a former senior official at the World Health Organization
who is now head of the government's special swine flu task force, warned: "We
believe that the infection is beginning to spread in the region."
The WHO said Saturday it was closely monitoring the swine flu situation in
Japan after officials shut down schools and cancelled public events in Kobe,
where people with flu symptoms were seeking treatment at local hospitals.
Masato Tashiro, a Japanese virologist who serves on an WHO panel on the
epidemic, told public broadcaster NHK: "I don't know specifics about the cases
(in Japan) but judging from confirmed cases the infection is likely to be
spreading to hundreds of people."
"There must be a number of people who slipped through border controls (at
airports) as their symptoms were quite light, passing the virus to other people
before they knew it," he said.

 

[Diane Morin]

Re: Japan Reports 32 More Cases Of Swine Flu; Total At 44

42 cases domestic + 4 cases discovered during onboard quarantine inspections at Narita International Airport

Japan confirms 42 new flu cases

Sunday 17th May, 03:38 PM JST
OSAKA ?

The number of cases of domestic new flu infections in Japan hit 42 on Sunday after a total of 34 high school and college students as well as their family members and teachers in Osaka and Hyogo prefectures were confirmed to have been infected with the new strain of influenza A.

The confirmations followed the discovery Saturday of Japan?s first eight domestic infections of new flu in Hyogo, which adjoins Osaka. A World Health Organization expert said community-level transmission may have begun in Japan, which could lead the WHO to raise its new flu pandemic alert to the highest level of 6 from the current 5.

In response to the latest development, Chief Cabinet Secretary Takeo Kawamura told reporters, ??We need to be fully prepared to prevent the further spread of infections.??

Of the 34 newly confirmed infections, 11 were detected in Osaka and 23 in Hyogo.

Railway, supermarket and convenience store employees in Hyogo, Osaka and Kyoto started wearing masks in line with instructions from their companies. Some retailers told high school and college students who work part-time not to come to work for a while.

In Ibaraki city in Osaka and Kobe, where many new flu infections were confirmed, anxious consumers rushed to drug stores and medical masks sold out at a number of shops.

Asics Corp, a sports and leisure products manufacturer based in Kobe, decided to allow its employees to avoid commuting to and from work during rush hours and to exempt those who cannot leave their children or aged family members due to the closure of daycare and nursing facilities from coming to work.

The 34 infections exclude four cases discovered during onboard quarantine inspections at Narita International Airport among a group of Japanese students and teachers who flew home from the United States after a trip to Canada.

Of the four, two students and a teacher have been declared free of the flu and have been discharged from hospitals.

The local authorities in Osaka said the 11 new cases detected in the prefecture were connected to Kansai Okura Senior High School in the city of Ibaraki and none of the students had traveled overseas recently.

A total of 143 Okura high school students had been absent from the school this month due to flu-like symptoms such as fever. The privately run school said it will be closed from Monday through Saturday.

Many newly confirmed cases in Hyogo were linked to Kobe High School and Hyogo High School run by the prefecture. Experts suspect group infections at the schools in Osaka and Hyogo.

On Saturday, the government shifted its new flu action program from ??a period of overseas outbreak?? to ??an early period of domestic outbreak?? and called for companies and schools in the areas concerned to allow individuals to avoid commuting during rush hours.

Commenting on the discovery of the first domestic infections in Japan, Masato Tashiro, chief of the National Institute of Infectious Diseases? influenza virus research laboratory, said that several hundred people in Japan may already be infected with the H1N1 strain of influenza A.

Tashiro, a member of a WHO emergency committee, told reporters at the organization?s headquarters in Geneva on Saturday that it is still unknown how the new flu virus entered Japan and that the infections in the country could amount to sustained human-to-human transmission in communities.

The WHO upgraded its flu pandemic alert level to phase 4 on April 27 and phase 5 on April 29, following the confirmation of widespread infections and deaths in North America. The highest stage of phase 6 refers to community-level outbreaks in two different WHO regions.

http://www.japantoday.com/category/...ore-flu-cases-total-domestic-cases-rise-to-21

 

[Treyfish]

Re: Japan Reports 32 More Cases Of Swine Flu; Total At 44

The Japanese diagnosis case increases to 46
2009-05-17 21:06

Japanese pig flu (H1N1 Type A flu) diagnoses the case to increase to 46. Japanese state-run infection sickness research institute influenza virus Research center director field generation of honorable person yesterday when the world 衞 lived organizes the headquarters were interviewed to indicate that Japanese domestic H1N1 Type A flu has the possibility to expand to the regional epidemic situation, the new confirmation's case has nothing to do with the journey abroad, does the virus come from where not to be clear, looking from already the population which infects, actual is possibly infected the case ?possibly to achieve several hundred people?, possibly ?the regional characteristic which 衞 defines with the world infects continually? 脗 gathers. :tiphat:
http://tinyurl.com/ptwapf