INFLUENZA IN JAPAN

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28153, 17 December 1956, Page 15

INFLUENZA IN JAPAN

Tokyo Epidemic Spreads

(Rec. 9 p.m.) TOKYO, Dec. 15 The Japanese Ministry of Welfare today organised the nation’s doctors and nurses into mobile emergency teams to help fight the national influenza epidemic. A Ministry spokesman said today that the total number of influenza cases registered with the Ministry totalled 23,000 and some victims were showing pneumonic symptoms. He said that unofficial estimates placed the figure at 300,000. The spokesman said that the Ministry had asked local health bureaus for reports of any deaths attributable to the current epidemic, but no confirmed or accurate figures had yet been received.

The spokesman said that the present epidemic had begun in Tokyo. Most of the victims in the metropolitan area had so far been school children. The disease had spread rapidly to the south and west and reports of more adult victims were being received by the ministry.

The spokesman said that both type A and B influenza had been found in the capital. In the western districts of Japan, only type B influenza cases had been found.

Doctors had been requested to conserve influenza vaccine stocks and the Ministry was considering authorising the import of vaccine from abroad. A Ministry spokesman said that frequent radio broadcasts were being made warning people to wear gauze masks and to gargle frequently.