Influenza is on the rise across Japan, with weekly case counts increasing in all 47 prefectures. The National Institute of Infectious Diseases and other organizations say about 5,000 hospitals and clinics across the country reported seeing 211,049 flu patients in the seven-day period up to December 22.
Concerns are growing that measles infections may become widespread in Japan as many other countries have been hit by outbreaks.
This year’s number of reported patients in Japan had reached 11 as of Monday, already surpassing the full-year numbers for 2020 to 2022 during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Nine people at evacuation center in Ishikawa were infected with norovirus and two people were infected with the new coronavirus.
They were all in the same evacuation center. After receiving treatment at the hospital, he was placed in isolation.
Mayor Shigeru Sakaguchi of Wajima City, Ishikawa Prefecture, announced on January 7th that one victim of the Noto Peninsula earthquake who had evacuated to an evacuation center in the city had died of hypothermia.
Japan’s health ministry said Wednesday that a man in his 30s who was living in Saitama Prefecture near Tokyo has died of mpox, the first such death in the country.
Japan’s first case of mpox, formerly known as monkeypox, was confirmed in July last year, and there have been 227 confirmed cases in the country as of Dec. 3, according to the ministry.
Pharyngoconjunctival fever, known as pool fever in Japan, is caused by adenovirus infection and common among children. It is often transmitted by droplets or contact.
The average number of influenza patients per hospital in Japan in the week ended Sunday came to 10.36, exceeding the warning level of 10 for the first time in three years, the health ministry said Friday.
Japan’s House of Representatives passed on Tuesday a bill to revise the infectious disease prevention law to better prepare for possible future crises caused by such diseases.
The bill, including a new rule obliging key hospitals to secure beds, is expected to be enacted during the current extraordinary Diet session running until December, after being sent to the House of Councillors, the upper chamber.
Barrier Free Japan