All but one released from hotel 1 week after contact with flu patients+

All but one released from hotel 1 week after contact with flu patients+

NARITA, Japan, May 15 Kyodo -
All but one of 48 airplane passengers were released Friday following a week of
isolation at a hotel near Narita airport, east of Tokyo, after having had close
contact with Japan's first four patients of a new strain of influenza.

The remaining one person will stay at the hotel because this person was
together with one of the four patients until just before symptoms developed.
The four patients -- three high school students and a teacher from Neyagawa,
Osaka Prefecture -- are expected to be kept hospitalized in Narita for the time
being.
The 47 people, originally passengers of a Northwest Airlines flight from
Detroit that arrived at Narita airport on May 8 with the four patients also
aboard, underwent immigration procedures to enter Japan at the hotel and left
for their destinations, the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry said.
Connie Shimizu, an American passenger who has lived in Japan for more than 30
years, told reporters in front of the hotel, ''I'm very happy to be outside...I
was lonely but I have friends and family in Japan so I could talk to them on
the phone.''
''They fed us very well so I feel like I almost gained about 10 pounds or so,''
she said.
Akio Mukaiazechi, an Osaka prefectural education board official, said a
government official told the 47 at a hotel cafeteria shortly after 4:40 p.m.
that their quarantine period was over.
Everybody took off their masks and expressed their joy, with some of the
students giving each other high fives, he said, explaining the reaction to the
news.
Asked by a reporter about the condition of the remaining one passenger,
Mukaiazechi said, ''That person is in good health.''
Besides the four patients, 32 of the 48 quarantined people are students and
teachers from Neyagawa who were on their way back from a school trip to Canada.
Of the four patients, two students and the teacher are expected to be released
from a nearby hospital on Sunday or later after another round of flu tests.
The fourth student could be released from another hospital as early as Saturday.
The ministry has shortened the isolation period to seven days from the
initially planned 10 days after concluding that even with the shorter isolation
period, the effectiveness of government measures to stop the new H1N1 strain of
influenza A virus entering Japan could be maintained.
The Japanese quarantine act allows authorities to forcibly hold people who have
had close contact with individuals infected with contagious diseases at
accommodation facilities or elsewhere for up to 240 hours.
The mother of a 17-year-old female student said Wednesday, ''I just hope she
comes home in good health. It's good that the period is being shortened even
slightly because I haven't seen her for three weeks.''
A 53-year-old American man, one of the isolated passengers, told Kyodo News via
e-mail, ''We all are eager to go home as soon as possible.''
''(I) would much rather be spending time with my wife and friends in Tokyo than
sitting in the detention center waiting for the 'all clear' signal to sound,''
he said.
According to the man, the passengers were staying inside their rooms most of
the time, except at meal times, killing time by watching TV, doing light
exercises or using personal computers.
==Kyodo