Flu outbreak affects 99, kills 3 at Tokyo hospital

TOKYO, Jan. 17 Kyodo -
A total of 99 people have contracted influenza and three of them have died at a
hospital in Machida, Tokyo, the Tokyo metropolitan government's public health
bureau said Saturday.
The outbreak affected 75 inpatients and 24 hospital workers at Tsurukawa
Sanatorium Hospital, according to the Bureau of Social Welfare and Public
Health, which has inspected the hospital and ordered it to take measures to
halt a further spread.
The hospital said a female worker was found infected on Jan. 3 and the flu
began spreading to patients in seven of its 11 wards around Jan. 6.
The three who died were all women, aged 77, 85 and 100, the hospital said.
Sixty-six of the 75 inpatients and 21 of the 24 workers have received
vaccinations. Two of the three patients who died had also received
vaccinations, according to the hospital.
The hospital had 448 inpatients as of Saturday with an average age of 83, it said.
Established in 1973, the hospital has departments of internal medicine, elderly
internal medicine and psychiatric treatment mainly for dementia, according to
its website.
The National Institute of Infectious Diseases issued a warning of a flu
epidemic in December.
==Kyodo