TMCnet News
Japan to designate H5N1 bird flu as infectious disease+(Japan Economic Newswire Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)TOKYO, April 14_(Kyodo) _ Japan's health ministry decided Friday to designate the deadly H5N1 strain of avian influenza as an infectious disease to prevent it from spreading in Japan in the event of an outbreak, ministry officials said. The designation will enable authorities to force infected persons to be hospitalized for treatment and impose restrictions on their work activities, the officials of the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare said. The plan was approved at the day's meeting of the ministry's Health Sciences Council and will be implemented this summer, the officials said. The last time the ministry took such a step was in July 2003, when severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, was designated as an infectious disease. The government had initially planned to designate the H5N1 strain of bird flu as an infectious disease following confirmation of an outbreak. But it reversed its position and decided to proceed with the designation anyway, in part because H5N1 has been spreading rapidly in the world with about 190 cases of human infection confirmed since mid-2003 in nine countries in Asia and in the Middle East, the officials said. The health ministry also considers it necessary to take preventive measures because H5N1 has the potential to mutate into a form that can be passed easily from person to person and because the World Health Organization has called for isolating a patient infected with H5N1. Currently, the H5N1 strain of avian influenza falls in a category of diseases for which authorities are not allowed to isolate a patient. With the new designation, authorities can require a person suspected of being infected with the disease to undergo medical checkups. They can also order a ban on moving the body of a patient who died of the disease. The designation will be effective for one year but can be extended by another year if necessary, the ministry officials said. A similar designation will apply at quarantine stations, enabling Japanese authorities to require suspected carriers from countries where human cases of H5N1 have been confirmed to undergo a health check, the officials said. |