ID :
60853
Sat, 05/16/2009 - 05:27
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://oananews.org//node/60853
The shortlink copeid
All but 1 leave hotel 1 week after contact with new-flu patients+
All but 1 leave hotel 1 week after contact with new-flu patients+
NARITA, Japan, May 15 Kyodo -
(EDS: ADDING DETAILS, QUOTES)
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 people found to be infected with a new strain
of influenza.
The Japanese government decided 47 of them were not infected with the new flu
after monitoring their health conditions for a week, the projected maximum
incubation period of the virus.
But one remaining person will stay at the hotel because the person was together
with one of the four people who was confirmed to have been infected with the
new flu a day later than the other three.
The four people -- three high school students and a teacher from Neyagawa,
Osaka Prefecture -- are expected to remain hospitalized in Narita for the time
being.
The 47 people, originally passengers on a Northwest Airlines flight from
Detroit that arrived at Narita airport on May 8 with the four people 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.
Shimizu also said during the quarantine period they were required to measure
their temperatures three times a day.
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.
Mark Ubert, a 53-year-old American living in North Carolina and who has been in
communication with media outlets via e-mail during his stay at the hotel, was
rejoined with his 49-year-old wife Fumi Akasaka.
''I'm relieved. I'm also surprised to see myself in tears because I'm not an
emotional person,'' Akasaka said.
Ubert said stories about the new influenza and quarantines are among the top
news in his hometown in Kansas also.
''My brother was contacted by media in my hometown Topeka, and they did a
couple of stories about somebody from Topeka, Kansas, was quarantined in Tokyo
so that made frontline news in Sunday's newspaper. It was a big event,'' Ubert
said.
''I'm definitely going to enjoy a nice dinner out tonight. That's our big plan
tonight, to go out to her favorite good old sushi bar,'' he said.
Ubert earlier said via e-mail that 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.
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 protective masks and expressed their joy, with some of
the students giving each other high-fives, he said, detailing 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 who have been hospitalized, 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.
==Kyodo
NARITA, Japan, May 15 Kyodo -
(EDS: ADDING DETAILS, QUOTES)
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 people found to be infected with a new strain
of influenza.
The Japanese government decided 47 of them were not infected with the new flu
after monitoring their health conditions for a week, the projected maximum
incubation period of the virus.
But one remaining person will stay at the hotel because the person was together
with one of the four people who was confirmed to have been infected with the
new flu a day later than the other three.
The four people -- three high school students and a teacher from Neyagawa,
Osaka Prefecture -- are expected to remain hospitalized in Narita for the time
being.
The 47 people, originally passengers on a Northwest Airlines flight from
Detroit that arrived at Narita airport on May 8 with the four people 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.
Shimizu also said during the quarantine period they were required to measure
their temperatures three times a day.
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.
Mark Ubert, a 53-year-old American living in North Carolina and who has been in
communication with media outlets via e-mail during his stay at the hotel, was
rejoined with his 49-year-old wife Fumi Akasaka.
''I'm relieved. I'm also surprised to see myself in tears because I'm not an
emotional person,'' Akasaka said.
Ubert said stories about the new influenza and quarantines are among the top
news in his hometown in Kansas also.
''My brother was contacted by media in my hometown Topeka, and they did a
couple of stories about somebody from Topeka, Kansas, was quarantined in Tokyo
so that made frontline news in Sunday's newspaper. It was a big event,'' Ubert
said.
''I'm definitely going to enjoy a nice dinner out tonight. That's our big plan
tonight, to go out to her favorite good old sushi bar,'' he said.
Ubert earlier said via e-mail that 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.
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 protective masks and expressed their joy, with some of
the students giving each other high-fives, he said, detailing 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 who have been hospitalized, 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.
==Kyodo
