The rapid spread of influenza in Japan calls for vigilance. In the city of Kizugawa, Kyoto Prefecture, a 69-year-old man became the 10th person in Japan to die of H1N1 flu. He had suffered from cardiac and pulmonary diseases before becoming infected.

According to the World Health Organization, 2,185 people worldwide had died of the flu as of Aug. 23. Japan's National Institute of Infectious Disease announced that some 5,000 medical institutions nationwide had reported a total of 11,636 cases of influenza for the week ending that day. The actual number of cases was estimated at about 150,000, most of them believed caused by the H1N1 virus. The average number of influenza patients treated per hospital for that week was 2.47, a steep rise from the 1.69 for the previous week. Okinawa had the highest figure with 46.31.

The health ministry also said there had been an outbreak of the H1N1 flu in 1,330 groups for the week ending Aug. 30, about 1.5 times the number for the previous week.

The ministry's flu epidemic scenario has H1N1 flu hitting some 25 million people, or about 20 percent of the population, by yearend. About 380,000 people will be hospitalized and about 40,000 of them will become seriously ill either with flu-caused encephalopathy or conditions requiring use of an artificial respirator.

It is predicted that in urban areas with higher population densities and in rural areas with a large proportion of elderly people, about 30 percent of the population will be hit by H1N1 flu. The scenario does not take into account the effects of vaccination.

Infants, elderly people and those with chronic renal, pulmonary and cardiac diseases and diabetes are likely to become seriously ill. The Japan Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology was shocked by an Aug. 26 report from Brazil indicating that 58, or 10 percent, of the 557 fatalities from influenza were pregnant women.

The society calls for vaccination of the nation's 1.1 million pregnant women and the 550,000 women who have delivered babies within the past six months. Pregnant women as well other people with chronic diseases should go to hospitals immediately if they develop cold symptoms.