Japan confirmed its first domestic infection of swine flu yesterday after a male high school student who has never been abroad tested positive for the virus.
“Today, the first patient infected with the new-type influenza in the country was confirmed,” Health Minister Yoichi Masuzoe told a news conference.
Two of the student’s schoolmates had also tested positive for swine flu in an initial genetic examination, which was being followed up by further tests, government officials said.
“The [three] people have no record of traveling abroad,” Masuzoe said, adding that the students had been isolated and were being treated in a hospital in the western city of Kobe.
Authorities in Kobe decided to temporarily close at least 75 schools and kindergartens and cancel festivals and other public events in some districts of the city, where fear of an outbreak was growing rapidly.
Saturday’s confirmed case is the first infection known to have taken place within the country.
Earlier this month, Japan confirmed its first A (H1N1) cases — a school teacher and three students who arrived at Tokyo’s Narita International Airport from North America and were quarantined.
Meanwhile, Malaysia confirmed its second case of swine flu yesterday — a female student who was on the same flight as a 21-year-old man whom authorities a day earlier announced had tested positive.
“Malaysia has a second case of the A (H1N1) influenza, which was confirmed by the Institute of Medical Research this morning,” the health ministry’s deputy director general Ramlee Rahmat said.
India confirmed its first case of the H1N1 flu in the southern city of Hyderabad yesterday.
“He is an Indian. He was identified at the screening at the airport and was quarantined, and his samples were drawn and they have tested positive,” said Vineet Choudhary, joint secretary of the health ministry.
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