swine flu

All the sanitizer aside, Japan, like the rest of Asia, remains committed to its face masks. According to some, it’s to prevent the wearer from getting sick. But according to others, it’s to prevent the wearer from spreading his/her germs with others. Which ever you choose to believe, seems everyone ends up one this time of year. Like, gloves… check. Scarf… check.

Some days ago I went to pick up J. from the airport in Shanghai. I had time, and there was nothing interesting in sight. But then I noted they had an informative cartoon rolling in the telly. To prevent the spreading of H1N1-virus, or swine flu.

SWINE flu has hit sumo wrestling in Japan, where 12 fighters have become the latest sportsmen to contract the virus, already affecting several baseball and rugby players.
Six low-ranking sumo wrestlers, five from the same Tokyo stable, were found to be infected with the A(H1N1) virus yesterday, a spokesman for the Japan Sumo Association said. Six others earlier tested positive.

Ostrich antibodies on your flu mask? It's more likely than you think - at least, in Japan where mask-wearing during the current H1N1 Swine Flu scare is at an all-time high. The new flu-preventing surgical masks are manufactured by Ostrich Pharma Corp. of Kyoto, Japan. Over 12 million of the ostrich antibody coated surgical masks have been sold since last summer... 12 million!

With the first confirmed case of A/H1N1 flu reported in Tokyo as well as new cases detected in Osaka, Hyogo and Shiga prefectures, Japan's new flu patients amounted to 266 on Wednesday.

Hospitals are opening special facilities to deal with Swine Flu outbreaks. Kobe City has become a "City of Masks" and none can found in the shops?

Now that Japan joined the rest of the world with the first cases of H1N1, I wonder if I might be refused treatment because I am from the country where those kids picked up those nasty viruses. (I have a chronic cough problem although I have been told I have healthy lungs.)

How cosmopolitan this swine flu thing is. Here in Canada, we even have pigs infected with swine flu (aka H1N1 or type A influenza) by a human, and now fully recovered. It's tough to be a pig these days....

A large number of Japanese expatriates and their families evacuating from Mexico following the swine flu scare swarmed Narita Airport on Wednesday, exhausted but relieved.

The exodus from Mexico also made it hard to obtain tickets for flights to Japan. According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, there were 5,849 Japanese living in Mexico as of October 2007.

Japan's Narita Airport has begin checking temperatures of passengers arriving mainly from Mexico after a swine influenza outbreak killed at least 20 people there.

The Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry instructed animal quarantine offices nationwide to examine any live pigs brought into Japan for signs of virus infection.