Infectious Disease Sureillance Center
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IDWRNovel Influenza A(H1N1) (15 May 2009)



Situation update of identified cases and responses in Japan-4


May 15, 2009

On 13th May, 2009, Japanese government announced to shorten the quarantine period of the close contacts of confirmed cases based on the Quarantine Law following to the recommendation of the “Advisory Committee for the Head Quarter on preparation to new type influenza”. At the same time, follow up on health conditions of the remaining passengers of North West 025 will be terminated by Day 7 instead of Day 10.

According to the Ministry Notification sent out on 13th to Quarantine Stations throughout Japan, Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare requested to shorten the period of quarantine for close contacts from 10 days to 7 days. The Notificaton provide the information on “period of quarantine” and “procedures for termination” as given below.

1) Period of quarantine

(1) Period of quarantine begins at the point of time when suspected influenza A (H1N1) case become laboratory confirmed case

(2) All medical and laboratory examination should be carried out under the Quarantine Law until confirmation of infection status has made.

(3) End of the quarantine period shall be 168 hours (7days) from the time of flight arrival.

2) Procedures for termination of quarantine

(1) when terminating the quarantine, medical examination should be carried out for every person to confirm no sign of infection to influenza A (H1N1)

(2) if any suspicious symptom of signs observed at final medical check-up, rapid kit testing should be performed and confirm negative result

Forty eight close contacts of the four confirmed cases will be release from the quarantine on 15th May evening with the changes in place. The Minister of MHLW commented that no need to be afraid of secondary infection from them since they will have medical check-ups prior to going back to home following the order given in the Notification above. They have been quarantined since the arrival on 8th May, 2009.

MHLW reported the recovery of three confirmed cases infected by novel Influenza A/H1N1 virus. A teacher and two students are expected to discharge on 15th if the PCR testing for the virus DNA fragments by the Quarantine Station result is negative. First test on their samples of 13th May resulted negative, and the second confirmation testing on 14th evening was positive. According to the Ministry media release on 15th May, the quarantine of three cases will be continued and the final confirmation shall be carried out.

Report from the National Surveillance

The national case-based early reporting surveillance received 16 cases (14 May, 0:00 UTC/GMT).   Result of laboratory diagnostic tests at either Regional Public Health Laboratories or the National Institute of Infectious Diseases (NIID) were all negative except the first case which has no result reported yet. These cases are excluding the four confirmed cases identified at the port of entry Quarantine Stations. Under Japanese regulations, cases prior to the immigration are reported separately through the quarantine system.



(2009/5/15 IDSC)

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