Japan confirmed yesterday that 125 people, many of whom had not been abroad, had been infected with the new strain of H1N1 flu after New York recorded its first death from the virus and Chile reported its first two cases.
Thirty-nine countries have now confirmed cases of the flu strain, a mix of swine, human and avian viruses, the WHO said.
Health ministers at the WHO’s annual World Health Assembly (WHA) in Geneva yesterday dropped nearly everything but the H1N1 flu strain from their agenda so they could go home sooner and monitor the situation in Japan.
ASO’S MESSAGE
Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso recorded a video message for broadcast on TV calling for calm while urging people to wash their hands, gargle and wear face masks to help prevent the spread of the disease.
“Experts say that if you receive timely treatment, this new flu is not something to be afraid of,” Aso said in the message.
Health Minister Yoichi Masuzoe said Tokyo was considering a new strategy to deal with the virus, which is not as deadly as the avian influenza for which existing plans had been created.
Most of Japan’s new infections were among high school students in the western prefectures of Hyogo and Osaka who had not traveled abroad, the Health Ministry said.
Schools and kindergartens were shuttered across the two prefectures but local governments advised businesses to operate as usual. Television showed most people traveling on trains in the area were wearing masks.
“We will not call for uniform restrictions [on business activities] but are asking for appropriate measures to be taken to prevent the spread of infection,” Masuzoe told a news conference.
However, a festival in Kobe that usually attracts tens of thousands was canceled.
Chile’s health minister confirmed on Sunday the country’s first cases of the flu in two Chilean women who had returned from a trip to the Dominican Republic.
The women, aged 25 and 32, were receiving treatment in hospital and the government was contacting other people who had traveled on the same flight, Health Minister Alvaro Erazo said.
In New York, a school principal died from the new flu on Sunday, the city’s first death from the virus. The 55-year-old had been admitted to hospital suffering from the flu several days before, a spokesman for the Flushing Hospital Medical Center said.
Several schools have been closed in the New York borough of Queens after students and staff were infected.
WHA MEETING
Meanwhile, in Geneva, delegates will spend this week discussing how to best respond to the H1N1 flu, which has caused mild symptoms in most of the people infected to date. The assembly will now end on Friday instead of next Wednesday.
The delegates will also seek an agreement on how samples of the virus should be handled and shared with pharmaceutical companies working to develop vaccines to fight the strain.
Rich and poor countries remain at odds over issues such as whether the biological material can be patented.
The meeting will also discuss poor countries’ needs for antiviral drugs like Roche’s Tamiflu and GlaxoSmithKline’s Relenza and any vaccines developed to confront the strain.
A declaration that a full pandemic is under way would put countries on higher alert about the disease and give more impetus to pharmaceutical efforts to create drugs and vaccines to fight its spread.
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