Health Features
Japanese screened for swine flu after German outbreak (News Feature)
By Dorothea Huelsmeier Jun 11, 2009, 14:45 GMT
Dusseldorf - Families flocked to the Japanese International School the German city of Dusseldorf on Thursday after the shock news that 32 pupils were infected with swine flu.
Braving heavy rain, parents and their children, all wearing face masks, made their way past the metal gates to undergo mass screening for the disease that has affected more than 100 people in Germany.
Two dark-suited employees, also wearing face masks and holding up brightly coloured umbrellas to protect themselves from the rain, politely but firmly turn back outsiders trying to gain entry.
Telephone calls to the school are drowned out by a jumble of voices in the background. It's clear there's an emergency.
Health authorities are at the school where hundreds of students, parents, brothers and sisters are being tested for the H1NI virus by medics taking throat smears.
Some 50 teachers and 530 students are registered at the school, which is located in a leafy suburb of Dusseldorf, home to the third largest Japanese community in Europe after London and Paris.
Nearly all the cases involved children aged 12, said Heiko Schneitler, head of the city's Health Office. Most of the cases were not severe, but one child required hospital treatment, he said.
The school will remain closed until June 19.
The first case involved a six-year-old who had just returned from a holiday with his family on the Maltese island of Gozo in the Mediterranean Sea.
The other cases involved a group of sixth-graders who stayed in youth hostels on a school trip to the east of Germany from Wednesday to Friday last week. On their return some complained of chills and fever. They had not been in contact with the six-year-old.
In the meantime, the families under quarantine are being cared for by members of the Japanese community and the consulate-general in Dusseldorf, where 8,000 Japanese live.
Despite the tense situation, the mass screening proceeds in an orderly fashion.
A 40-year-old father, who is walking quickly to his car with his wife and son, aged 8, says his 11-year-old daughter is one of those infected.
'We have to remain at home and await the results of the test ... We don't have many supplies left,' he says, laughing behind his face mask. 'Hopefully the Japanese government will help out.'
Another father says: 'My company has shown understanding that I cannot come to work.'
Many of the more than 500 Japanese companies in the Dusseldorf area warned their employees about swine flu outbreak on Wednesday.
A spokesman for the Japanese consulate-general said they were doing all they can to help those families whose children are infected.
'We're delivering medicines to their homes,' a spokesman said, adding there was plenty of vaccine available.
The Japanese community is also helping out with food and water for the affected families.
A spokesman for the city of Dusseldorf said they were willing to help if the Japanese community was unable to cope.
Japanese interpreters were at work and laboratories were working flat out to produce quick results from the tests, said city spokesman Kai Schumacher.
The Japanese school was opened in 1971 in the suburb of Niederkassel. Japanese restaurants, shops and hotels soon followed and are now firmly entrenched in the city of 580,000.
On Saturday, hundreds of thousand of visitors are expected for the annual Japan Day festival, which offers attractions such as sumo wrestling, Samurai fighters and a gigantic fireworks display.
City authorities still said they still plan to go ahead with the festival despite the outbreak of swine flu.
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Older Talkback
page: 1
Swine influenza (also called swine flu, hog flu, and pig flu) is an infection of a host animal by any one of several specific types of microscopic organisms called 'swine influenza virus'. In 2009 the media labeled as 'swine flu' flu caused by 2009's new strain of swine-origin A/H1N1 pandemic virus just as it had earlier dubbed as 'avian flu' flu caused by the recent Asian-linage HPAI (High Pathogenic Avian Influenza) H5N1 strain that is still endemic in many wild bird species in several countries.
A swine influenza virus (SIV) is any strain of the influenza family of viruses that is usually hosted by (is endemic in) pigs.[2] As of 2009, the known SIV strains are the influenza C virus and the subtypes of the influenza A virus known as H1N1, H1N2, H3N1, H3N2, and H2N3. Swine influenza is common in pigs in the United States (particularly in the midwest and occasionally in other states), Mexico, Canada, South America, Europe (including the United Kingdom, Sweden, and Italy), Kenya, and eastern Asia (namely China, Taiwan, and Japan).[2]
Transmission of swine influenza virus from pigs to humans is not common and does not always cause human influenza, often only resulting in the production of antibodies in the blood. The meat of the animal poses no risk of transmitting the virus when properly cooked. If transmission does cause human influenza, it is called zoonotic swine flu. People who work with pigs, especially people with intense exposures, are at increased risk of catching swine flu. In the mid-20th century, identification of influenza subtypes became possible, which allows accurate diagnosis of transmission to humans. Since then, fifty confirmed transmissions have been recorded, Rarely, these strains of swine flu can pass from human to human. In humans, the symptoms of swine flu are similar to those of influenza and of influenza-like illness in general, namely chills, fever, sore throat, muscle pains, severe headache, coughing, weakness and general discomfort.
The 2009 swine flu outbreak in humans is due to a new strain of influenza A virus subtype H1N1 that contains genes closely related to swine influenza.[3] The origin of this new strain is unknown. However, the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) reports that this strain has not been isolated in pigs.[4] This strain can be transmitted from human to human,[5] and causes the normal symptoms of influenza.[6]
Pigs can become infected with human influenza, and this appears to have happened during the 1918 flu pandemic[citation needed] and the 2009 swine flu outbreak.[citation needed]
page: 1
Arvin Gumato ParejaJun 16th, 2009 - 05:00:24
Swine influenza (also called swine flu, hog flu, and pig flu) is an infection of a host animal by any one of several specific types of microscopic organisms called 'swine influenza virus'. In 2009 the media labeled as 'swine flu' flu caused by 2009's new strain of swine-origin A/H1N1 pandemic virus just as it had earlier dubbed as 'avian flu' flu caused by the recent Asian-linage HPAI (High Pathogenic Avian Influenza) H5N1 strain that is still endemic in many wild bird species in several countries.
A swine influenza virus (SIV) is any strain of the influenza family of viruses that is usually hosted by (is endemic in) pigs.[2] As of 2009, the known SIV strains are the influenza C virus and the subtypes of the influenza A virus known as H1N1, H1N2, H3N1, H3N2, and H2N3. Swine influenza is common in pigs in the United States (particularly in the midwest and occasionally in other states), Mexico, Canada, South America, Europe (including the United Kingdom, Sweden, and Italy), Kenya, and eastern Asia (namely China, Taiwan, and Japan).[2]
Transmission of swine influenza virus from pigs to humans is not common and does not always cause human influenza, often only resulting in the production of antibodies in the blood. The meat of the animal poses no risk of transmitting the virus when properly cooked. If transmission does cause human influenza, it is called zoonotic swine flu. People who work with pigs, especially people with intense exposures, are at increased risk of catching swine flu. In the mid-20th century, identification of influenza subtypes became possible, which allows accurate diagnosis of transmission to humans. Since then, fifty confirmed transmissions have been recorded, Rarely, these strains of swine flu can pass from human to human. In humans, the symptoms of swine flu are similar to those of influenza and of influenza-like illness in general, namely chills, fever, sore throat, muscle pains, severe headache, coughing, weakness and general discomfort.
The 2009 swine flu outbreak in humans is due to a new strain of influenza A virus subtype H1N1 that contains genes closely related to swine influenza.[3] The origin of this new strain is unknown. However, the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) reports that this strain has not been isolated in pigs.[4] This strain can be transmitted from human to human,[5] and causes the normal symptoms of influenza.[6]
Pigs can become infected with human influenza, and this appears to have happened during the 1918 flu pandemic and the 2009 swine flu outbreak.
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