The new H1N1 influenza has spread rapidly mainly among high school students, their family members and teachers in Hyogo and Osaka prefectures. On Saturday, the first eight cases were confirmed. By Sunday, the number of confirmed cases topped 80, and on Wednesday it climbed to at least 238.
The flu has forced the temporary closure of more than 4,000 schools and kindergartens in the two prefectures. It is imperative that the central and local governments work to prevent the flu from spreading to other regions.
At first, the nation's effort to prevent the intrusion of the flu at ports of entry appeared to have worked, but the virus has somehow managed to slip through. No one in the first group of confirmed cases had even been abroad. They appear to have contracted the virus through sports events in which teams from various high schools participated. The pathogenic power of the new flu virus is not very strong, but it is highly infectious. Young people also appear to lack immunity to the virus, making schools into hotbeds for the new flu.