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Flu outbreak affects 101; 3 die in Tokyo hospital

Shiloh

Shiloh

Editor, Senior Moderator
Source: http://www.japantoday.com/category/national/view/flu-outbreak-affects-101-3-die-in-tokyo-hospital

Flu outbreak affects 101; 3 die in Tokyo hospital

Sunday 18th January, 12:30 AM JST

TOKYO ?

A total of 101 people have contracted influenza and three of them have died at a hospital in Machida, the Tokyo metropolitan government?s public health bureau said Saturday. The outbreak affected 77 inpatients and 24 hospital workers at Tsurukawa Sanatorium Hospital, according to the Bureau of Social Welfare and Public Health, which has inspected the hospital and ordered it to take measures to halt a further spread.

The hospital said a female worker was found infected on Jan 3 and the flu began spreading to patients in seven of its 11 wards around Jan 6. The three who died were all women, aged 77, 85 and 100, the hospital said. Sixty-eight of the 77 inpatients and 21 of the 24 workers have received vaccinations. Two of the three patients who died had also received vaccinations, according to the hospital. The hospital had 448 inpatients as of Saturday with an average age of 83, it said.

The National Institute of Infectious Diseases issued a warning of a flu epidemic in December.
 
Re: Flu outbreak affects 101; 3 die in Tokyo hospital

Source: http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200901210047.html

EDITORIAL: Outbreak of deadly flu
2009/1/21

Three patients died earlier this month during an influenza outbreak that infected more than 100 people--senior inpatients and staff workers--at a medical institution in Machida, western Tokyo.

A flu outbreak of this scale has been rare in recent years. Why did flu spread to so many people in the hospital? Couldn't steps have been taken to prevent its spread? An exhaustive investigation into the outbreak is the only way to find what preventive efforts are required.

This winter, the flu season started earlier than usual. It is expected to reach its peak in late January and early February. Steps to better prepare the nation for flu outbreaks should be taken before the flu season is in full swing.

The best way for people to protect themselves is to get a flu vaccination. At the hospital in Machida, about 90 percent of the patients and staff members had been vaccinated.

Since vaccines are prepared for the specific strains of flu expected to be dominant in each season, the shots can prove ineffective in some years. More often than not, vaccines don't work well for older people as they fail to produce the antibodies that provide immunity against the disease.

In the case of the outbreak in Machida, more than 20 young staff members also became infected with the flu virus. That suggests the vaccine may have been less effective for aged patients.

It shouldn't come as a surprise that an infectious disease spreads quickly among a group of people without immunity against it who are living in a closed environment. What can be done to prevent the spread of flu under such circumstances?

Taking an antiviral drug like Tamiflu can ward off the virus. The Machida hospital could have contained the outbreak if it had given an antiviral drug to all uninfected people at the outset.

What is important in the investigation into the flu deaths is to carry out a pathological analysis swiftly to identify the virus strain. The local public health center didn't conduct an onsite inspection at the hospital for several days after receiving the first report on the flu outbreak and was also slow to conduct the necessary analysis.

Experts say the nation's policy efforts to deal with public health challenges posed by influenza are basically insufficient, compared with those made by Western nations. The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare should take a fresh look at its policy measures in this regard.

For instance, the ministry's guidelines for dealing with the contagious illness do not refer to preventive administration of Tamiflu.

The biggest worry for elderly flu patients is the possibility of developing pneumonia. To prevent flu patients from developing this serious and potentially life-threatening complication, many Western countries are promoting the use of pneumococcal vaccines. But the health ministry has yet to recognize fully the seriousness of the health threat posed by pneumococcus, or bacteria that can cause pneumonia. As a result, a large portion of the elderly in this country are not immune to this pathogen.

Concerns are growing about the possible emergence of new strains of influenza viruses to which humans have no immunity at all. Policymakers are trying to figure out ways to deal with such flu strains.

What is even more important, however, is to make people better prepared for ordinary seasonal influenza. If the government is unable to take effective measures even against ordinary flu, we cannot expect it to respond effectively to new strains.

Influenza is a really serious disease that is completely different from the common cold. It produces severe symptoms that affect the entire body and can lead to death in children and old people.

One possible reason for the widespread misunderstanding of this disease is the practice of using the word meaning the common cold, kaze, in referring to past major flu epidemics like the Spanish flu. It is clearly necessary to implement policy efforts to prevent flu outbreaks by trying to change the public perception of the disease.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Jan. 20(IHT/Asahi: January 21,2009)
 
Re: Flu outbreak affects 101; 3 die in Tokyo hospital

Long-term care facility patients suffered serious death risks during seasonal human influenza epidemics.

If not strictly quarantine measures are implemented briefly after initial influenza cases, it is possible that an entire ward could be affected.

I was assistant-nurse in long-term care hospital ward and I experienced some grim seasons with several deaths per single day.

Sometimes patients are so debilitated that no treatment could help them: people with central catheterism (also with at risk of sepsis), in bed for weeks or months without proper respiratory assistance, with cardio-pulmonary failures seem to have poor outcome when infected with seasonal flu even when vaccine was administered.

So, the bad news is: if not strict hygiene measures are promptly implemented in such facilities then the death-toll could be hard...
 
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