Flu cases recorded at designated facilities slightly up over week+

TOKYO, Sept. 4 Kyodo -
The number of influenza patients reported by about 5,000 designated medical
institutions across Japan during the week that ended Aug. 30 stood at 12,007,
or 2.52 per facility, up from 11,636, or 2.47 per facility, the previous week,
the National Institute of Infectious Diseases said Friday.
Most of the flu patients in the reporting week are believed to be infected with
the new H1N1 strain of influenza A, officials said as the institute released a
preliminary report.
The per-facility figure topped 1 for the first time in mid-August, marking the
beginning of an epidemic in Japan.
Okinawa overwhelmingly led a list of prefectures hardest hit by influenza, with
36.00 patients per facility in the reporting week, but the figure was sharply
down from 46.31 in the preceding week.
An official of the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry said health authorities
are not yet sure whether the influenza infections in Okinawa have peaked and
will monitor data in the following week to assess the situation.
Okinawa was followed by Oita (3.72), Osaka and Fukuoka (3.08) and Tokyo (3.01).
In Hokkaido, where schools resumed classes after a summer vacation earlier than
other areas, the per-facility patient figure rose sharply from 0.82 in the
previous week to 2.17.
Meanwhile, World Health Organization medical officer Nahoko Shindo told a
symposium on the new flu at the University of Tokyo on Friday that local
authorities' policy of closing schools to contain the spread of the flu in
western Japan in May drew global attention as an effective way of tackling the
epidemic.
She warned that the delay in treatment with antiflu virus agents could result
in deaths from such symptoms as influenza virus pneumonia and encephalopathy,
and that a sharp rise in the number of patients expected during the upcoming
peak period would place a burden on medical workers at intensive-care units.
The health ministry has estimated about 25 million people, some 20 percent of
the population in Japan, are expected to become infected with the new flu and
the peak of the epidemic will come around late September to early October.
Some 380,000 people, or 1.5 percent of the anticipated cases, are expected to
be hospitalized and 40,000 people, 0.15 percent, are predicted to develop
serious symptoms like encephalopathy or need to be aided by respirators,
according to the forecast.
Norio Sugaya, a pediatrician at Keiyu Hospital in Yokohama, said at the
symposium about 38,000 people, about 0.03 percent of Japan's total population,
could succumb to the disease.
But he indicated that swift treatment with the antiflu drugs Tamiflu and
Relenza would prevent patients from developing severe symptoms and being
hospitalized.
==Kyodo