JPN: Japan acts over fresh swine flu cases, world figures soar
17 May 2009 2:55 AM
TOKYO, May 16 AFP - Officials are closing schools and cancelling public events in the Japanese city of Kobe after eight high school students tested positive for swine flu and scores more reported feeling ill.
The eight confirmed cases are students at a high school in the western city of Kobe, and another nine school students are considered suspected cases in nearby Osaka city, local officials say.
And as fears rise in Japan that the virus will spread across the country, World Health Organisation officials say they will be investigating the latest outbreak.
Meanwhile a third confirmed swine flu case on the Chinese mainland has been reported in Beijing, state media quoted the health ministry as saying on Saturday.
The latest World Health Organisation (WHO) tally at 0700 GMT (1700 AEST) showed confirmed cases had soared beyond 8,000 as India and Turkey reported first infections.
The official Xinhua news agency said China's newly confirmed case involved an 18-year-old woman previously reported as a suspected case by the Beijing municipal government. The student was a Beijing native who "studies in a university in the New York State of the United States".
Japanese prime minister Taro Aso called for calm after the country's first case of a domestic infection -- someone who had not picked up the virus from abroad -- was confirmed in a 17-year-old boy.
"The government will carry out thorough inspections on the patients and on the people close to them," said Aso. "We will take action to stop the infection from spreading."
But former WHO senior official Shigeru Omi, now head of the government's special swine flu task force, said: "We believe that the infection is beginning to spread in the region".
And Reiko Hamuro, a 42-year-old transport company employee in Kobe, said: "All of a sudden, people started wearing masks today."
Officials in Kobe announced the temporary closure of at least 75 schools and kindergartens. They also cancelled festivals and other public events in some districts.
And WHO spokesman Dick Thomson told AFP in Geneva: "It is something we are looking at but we need to have an investigation."
Japan confirmed its first cases of the influenza A(H1N1) virus contracted overseas on May 9: a school teacher and three students who flew to Tokyo from Canada via Detroit. It immediately quarantined them and their fellow passengers.
The latest tally from the WHO showed that worldwide, the number of people killed by swine flu had risen to 72, up from 65 on Friday: six more in Mexico and one in the United States.
Over the past week, infections have risen sharply, going up by about 1,000 a day since Monday to reach 8,451 on Saturday.
The United States, followed by Mexico, where the epidemic began about three weeks ago, have recorded the highest number of cases. Two new countries, Ecuador and Peru, were added to the WHO's official list.
India confirmed its first swine flu case after a 23-year-old man who had flown to Hyderabad from New York tested positive for the virus.
He was quarantined on his return on Wednesday. He had changed planes in Dubai and all passengers who had flown on the plane were being contacted.
The WHO is not recommending travel restrictions to stop the spread of the infection, except to advise anyone who falls ill to delay travel.
Turkish health minister Recep Akdag said their first case of swine flu had been detected in blood tests carried out on an Iraqi-born US national picked up by thermal cameras as he arrived at Istanbul airport.
Local news channels NTV and CNN-Turk later reported tests confirmed his wife had also contracted the virus.
Canadian scientists said they had "mapped the full genetic sequence of the virus" found in swine there, which would "help scientists around the world better understand the virus and its affects on animals".
