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.