Japan, Australia confirm 1st cases of swine flu

[May 09, 2009]  TOKYO (AP) -- Japanese authorities scrambled Saturday to track travelers who arrived on the same flight as three people diagnosed with the country's first confirmed cases of swine flu. Australia also joined the ranks of affected countries with its first confirmed case.

Authorities in Tokyo quarantined a high school teacher and two of his teenage students after they tested positive at the airport when they returned Friday on a flight from the U.S. after a school trip to Canada.

A lab at the National Institute of Infectious Diseases later confirmed they had the virus that has killed at least 47 people and sickened more than 3,100 in 30 countries, most in the U.S. and Mexico, Health and Welfare Minister Yoichi Masuzoe said.

The ministry confirmed that seven more people aboard the same flight had been taken to a hospital after they complained of feeling ill, and were undergoing tests. The ministry declined to give further details.

Since the outbreak began last month, several countries, including Japan, have screened air travelers for flu symptoms. But news reports said as many as 11 people on the Northwest Airlines flight from Detroit that landed in Tokyo on Friday avoided those screenings.

The ministry said at least 13 people - believed to be separate from the reported 11 that the ministry was still investigating - had gone on to other destinations in transit from that flight, and efforts were under way to contact them through the World Health Organization.

Taiwan's Centers for Disease for Control Deputy Director-General Shih Wen-yi said 16 passengers who were on that flight - including two Americans and 14 Taiwanese - have arrived on the island. Shih said authorities were looking for them.

Masuzoe acknowledged it would be difficult to trace all those who came into contact with the three infected Japanese, who had visited Canada's Ontario province on a home-stay program with about 30 other students. The three were isolated and recovering at a hospital near Narita International Airport.

"There are limitations to what we can do, but we will continue to monitor the situation and strengthen or relax such measures as needed," he told reporters.

Public broadcaster NHK TV urged people who were aboard the flight to call a special telephone number for consultations. So far, 49 have been traced and will be monitored for 10 days, officials said.

Asia has been largely spared from the virus that continues to claim lives in worst-hit Mexico, which announced its 45th death Friday even as it emerged from a national shutdown that closed schools and businesses and shuttered churches and soccer stadiums.

But a handful of cases have cropped up in the region, including in South Korea and Hong Kong. The Chinese territory quarantined more than 200 people in a hotel after confirming its first case in a guest a week ago. They were released on Friday, and many were unable to contain their delight as they poured from the building for the first time in seven days. One man hugged a police officer and broke into song.

Australia reported its first case on Saturday in a woman it said was no longer infectious. She first noticed her symptoms while traveling in the U.S., federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon told reporters.

New Zealand - the first country in the Asia-Pacific region to confirm cases - reported two more on Saturday for a total of seven. The two high school students returned last month from a school trip to Mexico. Six of the country's cases were in students and a teacher on that trip; the seventh traveled on the same plane as the group.

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Associated Press writers Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo, Jeremiah Marquez in Hong Kong, Ray Lilley in Wellington, New Zealand, Dennis Passa in Sydney and Debby Wu in Taipei, Taiwan, contributed to this report.

[Associated Press; By YURI KAGEYAMA]

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