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Huge jump in Japan flu cases
(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-05-18 07:44 TOKYO: Japan's health ministry confirmed dozens of new cases of swine flu in waves of announcements yesterday, as the government shut down schools and canceled community activities in affected cities. The country now has 44 confirmed cases, with 39 of them reported over the weekend. Most of them are teenagers. The latest yesterday evening included 11 high school students and a family member in the western prefecture of Hyogo. Hours earlier, the ministry confirmed seven other patients, including five teenagers, a teacher in his 40s and a male college student in the same region. All tested positive for the H1N1 virus and are recovering in local hospitals, health ministry official Takuya Nemoto said.
The ministry confirmed 20 other cases earlier yesterday, all teenagers at several high schools in Hyogo and Osaka prefecture. The news of the rapid spread of the virus at schools came a day after Japan confirmed its first domestic case of swine flu in another student in the western port city of Kobe, about 430 km west of Tokyo. Japan's first cases were believed to have been contracted outside the country. The students have not traveled overseas recently, but tested positive for the same strain that has killed more than 70 people worldwide. The government immediately ordered schools closed in parts of the affected cities. Kobe also canceled its annual festival and other events planned for the weekend. Sales people at stores and restaurants and officials at train stations in the region started wearing masks as a precaution. "We have not determined how the virus spread in the region, and we are doing our best to track down the route of the infections and contain them," Chief Cabinet Secretary Takeo Kawamura said. India, Turkey affected Turkey and India confirmed their first cases of H1N1 flu on Saturday, all involving airline passengers arriving from the United States. The number of confirmed cases of the new Influenza A (H1N1) flu has climbed to 8,480 and the death toll has remained static at 72, the World Health Organization said in its latest update yesterday. The confirmation of cases in India, Malaysia and Turkey brought the number of countries with confirmed cases of H1N1 to 39, WHO said. AP-Reuters (China Daily 05/18/2009 page7) |
