Sorry another swine flu question.

Would anyone know of a website (English or Japanese is fine) where they would show count of how many people are infected by prefecture in Japan?

I'm heading to Ishigaki-jima with a 1 year old and my relatives in Japan are advising me against it saying they have quite a large number of outbreaks. However I want to decipher whether this is relative to the population. Just trying to weigh my risks.

Thanks

Here's the site of the governmental agency in charge of monitoring the situation. Seems they've stopped updating the reports at the end of July.

http://idsc.nih.go.jp/disease/swine_influenza_e/index.html

Hi Yllwsmrf thanks so much for the link.
I'm not too concerned but I guess my relatives in Japan are just being precautionary as my daughter is young.
I guess I'll have to keep tabs on the Japanese news channels to determine how wide spread it is in Okinawa.

Thanks again.

I understand that generally speaking, the novel flu is epidemic in Japan but not at the stage for ordinary people to refrain from travels.

However, one-year-old infants can not gargle or wash hands by self, can not claim to be feeling sick, and are considered to be more liable to become serious when infected with novel / conventional flu.
Okinawa Prefecture explains that it is accepting tourists as usual (as of 2 Sep. 2009), but also says that students having fear for health (like those with chronic disease) need to consider being absent from a school excursion.

: where they would show count of how many people are infected by prefecture in Japan

I think that flu in Okinawa has become a recent topic
not because of (A) its count of confirmed novel flu infection cases
but because of (B) its larger count of novel / conventional flu reports per monitoring point.

There is a time lag, short or long, between the time one is infected with novel flu and the time the infection is confirmed. And, the count (A) includes the number of cases where the infants have already get recovered.
The count (B) is taken as to each week. It may include the number of conventional flu cases, but can be used as an indicator to roughly grasp the situation.

- Okinawa Prefecture: Qs and As on novel flu, regarding school excursions (2 Sep. 2009, in Japanese, PDF file)
http://www3.pref.okinawa.jp/site/contents/attach/19960/q&a0903.pdf
- Okinawa Prefecture: To residents: Information on novel flu (in Japanese)
http://www3.pref.okinawa.jp/site/view/contview.jsp?cateid=73&id=19257&...

Sorry for a simple mistake....

NOT: where the infants have already get recovered.
BUT: where the patients have already get recovered.

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TV tells us that, in Okinawa, the flu tends to spread in summer as people tend to pack themselves in air-conditioned spaces. Be sure you get some air flow, but at a relatively cool place.

Thank you so much omotenashi san and uco san. I feel more prepared after reading this.

omotenashi, "novel flu"? It sounds like something that books get, or a flu that is really interesting. The flu you are talking about is usually called H1N1 flu by the English media, although some still call it swine flu. "novel flu" I'm guessing is your translation of the Japanese name for it, and it sounds odd to a native English speaker.

omotenashi, "novel flu"? It sounds like something that books get, or a flu that is really interesting. The flu you are talking about is usually called H1N1 flu by the English media, although some still call it swine flu. "novel flu" I'm guessing is your translation of the Japanese name for it, and it sounds odd to a native English speaker.

Actually its not a translation, but an official English designation of the disease. "Novel flu" (as in "new flu") is how the World Health Organization referred to the new strain of swine flu for the first few months before officially referring to it only as H1N1.

"new flu", ok. "novel flu", no. The adjective "novel" means "pleasantly new or different", refreshing, original etc and is completely wrong in this context.

Can you point me to an article where WHO called H1N1 "novel flu"? "New flu" I have seen many times, but I'd be extremely surprised to find that they ever called it "novel flu" in English.

MMM,
I'm afraid you are incorrect. Novel can also be defined as: new and not resembling something formerly known or use

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/novel

Sira,

Here's one:

http://www.searo.who.int/LinkFiles/Swine_influenza_FAQ_influenza_A%28H...

It appears that every new flu outbreak may be labeled "novel" as a matter of course.

'Novel' was used sometime shortly after it started becoming a bigger problem.
The name didn't stick despite WHO requesting all media to refer to it as 'Novel' instead of 'Swine'
Actually it's very surprising to see just a user on a forum refer to it as novel :)

Yea, when it first broke out it was referred to as "Novel Influenza A (H1N1)", as in a new variation of influenza A, composed of hemaglutinin type 1 (H1) and neuraminidase type 1 (N1). Since then I guess the novelty has worn off.

Also, I remember the official change in the US to referring to it as H1N1 apparently in response to concerns from the pork industry that the name "Swine Flu" was hurting business.

I think that the name "Influenza A (H1N1)" suggested by WHO is not the best one; it lacks a word to mean that this flu is a newly confirmed one.

In case the WHO pandemic alert level on a newly confirmed influenza turns Phase 4, Government of Japan designates it as 新型インフルエンザ (literally "new-type influenza"), which is legally defined in an Act concerning infectious diseases prevention.

Japanese legal terms have no official translations; English expressions to say 新型インフルエンザ are not always the same.
Google hits many pages in English including "novel flu" or "novel influenza" located at URLs of go.jp domain.
Major Japan-based newspapers seem to be avoiding "novel" for this new flu 2009 on the web, maybe for readers not to encounter flu-related articles when searching for "novel" meaning a writer's work piece.

I personally prefer "novel." "New" may unintentionally imply "another new" with higher probability than "novel." An influenza is not called 新型インフルエンザ only because it's considered to be caused by a new strain of virus.

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