Nearly 14,000 schools closed due to influenza

Thursday 29th October, 08:36 AM JST

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meloveulongtime at 08:46 AM JST - 29th October

paranoia!
Klein2 at 09:22 AM JST - 29th October
I was a non-believer. A week and a half ago, my wife was diagnosed shingata. Tamiflu worked, she masked up and we made it through the week. One child was diagnosed this week. Same deal. That child's elementary school class had 17 absences and was cancelled for the week. Another child's school closed. Another child's class has absenteeism of about 30%. I have muddled through with no medical care whatsoever, but I have got it. I do not seem to be able to shake it. Tamiflu fixes up the symptoms quickly, but it is days before it is non-communicable. Tamiflu makes it possible to continue with life activities, but the disease remains communicable, which means there are a lot of Shingata zombies walking around.

Because of the coughing involved, it is extremely communicable. The fever seems to be quite high. Headaches and muscle pain are about on a par with usual flu. Nausea and vomiting are absent.

Based on my personal experience, I have some thoughts.
1. Preventive measures, to a point, are worth it. In my family, basic hygiene at least delayed infection. Masks during the coughing stage are A1. An ounce of prevention is definitely worth a pound of cure.
2. Tamiflu-resistant strains are just around the corner. It works SO WELL that I had one child declare a couple of hours after taking it "I'm cured!!" Yeah, right. Many people will stop taking the meds, leaving us to find other cures in the future.
3. The time lost to "being sick" is much more valuable than any reasonable countermeasure, so I recommend vaccination, masks, hand washing, and general caution as a matter of common sense.
4. I have mixed feelings about school closures. If school is important enough to require of people, it is important enough to continue despite the outbreak. However, shingata seems to spread very easily AND affect young people badly. The rationale is at least as good as that for snow and typhoons.
ilcub76 at 09:38 AM JST - 29th October

The second-year students at my school went on their school trip to Hokkaido and Tokyo about that time. Lo and behold, once they came back, about 30-40 of them came down with the flu. It was the first time nearly 50 years that my school sent 4 classes home and told them to stay away for a few days.

Considering my school has over 1,700 students, had this spread to other areas of the school, it would have been a big deal. This is one reason we cancelled the ball-games tournament scheduled for October. Another school in the same city had over 200 cases following their Sports Day at the beginning of September.
tkoind2 at 09:47 AM JST - 29th October

The first waves of an outbreak are not the issue. It is the adaptations that the virus may undergo once it is in broad circulation that warrant all the concern. That and the fact that this flu can be very bad.

Why not take precautions? It makes sense and is far less costly than throwing caution to the wind.
DeepAir65 at 09:54 AM JST - 29th October

Most of the facilities were hit by the new influenza, according to the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry

How can they say that? They only test for flu these days and not what strain it is.
Smythe at 11:11 AM JST - 29th October

I could be wrong, but am assuming it is this Swine Flu & if so I would not be surprised to see some schools in Canada to USA closed up for a while.

We just had a situation of where a 13 yr old good hockey player, for his school, died of the same in just a day. Which is a bit frightening & yes can cause some to panic.

Back in 1940, I think, I could NOT good to school as the freeze was on the polio matter. True it put me back a year, but health-wise I was fine.
Ranger_Miffy at 03:44 PM JST - 29th October

I ride the Tokyo area trains everyday and am really grateful to those snifflers and sneezers who mask up. My university classes have about a 20% vacancy but I don't think they are all for flu... :-)
larguero at 09:18 PM JST - 29th October

This is just starting. In Argentina, where the influenza hit hard between June and August, all schools closed for 2 weeks after winter vacations (totaling 1 month). I expect a similar thing to happen here in December-January.
bokudayo at 10:13 PM JST - 29th October

This is definitely the year to be an ALT. I wonder how many are enjoying extended vacations / weekends...
proxy at 10:53 PM JST - 29th October

It is not fear or paranoia. Schools or classes always close if a certain percentage of the class is absent. Usually it is 30% but in many places in has been reduced to 20% now because doctors advise students with H1N1 to stay home for a solid week. It is not done to limit infection, it is done because if many students are absent they fall behind in their school work and the teacher has to reteach the same work two or three times. At the start of the H1N1 flu, during the summer classes were closed when just was student was sick. At that time it was fear and paranoia, now it is just business as usual.

In regards to the 13 year old boy that died in Canada, I certainly hope the police arrest his father. The poor boy is a victim of hockey nut parents. What kind of an Axx sends his boy to play in a hockey tournament the day after he is sent home from school with suspected H1N1. It is either child abuse or endangerment. The poor boy was killed by his parents and they need to be held accountable for their actions!
eigonosensei at 12:07 AM JST - 30th October

When I was a kid the flu was just a "bad cold". I just ate soup, drank 7-Up and watched "Giligan's Island" and "The Price Is Right"
whatsgoinon at 01:58 AM JST - 30th October

This thing is going to run it's course, but good hygiene would help so much. Western manners have changed from the old, "cover your mouth when you cough", to cough into your sleeve at the bend in your elbow. This reduces the slew of germs that you cough all over people if you don't cover your mouth, but doesn't get on your hands and therefore does not transfer onto everything you touch, including door handles. I wish the Japanese gov't and media would begin to discuss this as important hygiene. Masks do not completely the germs from the cough from getting on the person next to you, and just letting it fly is so much worse...
alargo at 09:38 AM JST - 30th October

Whatsgoinon--Such government propaganda might prove difficult as it could be a hard sell in a culture which considers itself genetically clean.

My school has sent a couple of classrooms home, but they certainly have no intention of closing the school. Teachers and students are expendable; money is not.

About ten years ago, there was a pretty bad flu season in which as much as 30% of my class was out sick. Am I immune to the flu or just lucky?

Klein2--Glad you made it through okay.
Mex1c060 at 12:26 PM JST - 30th October

Getting sick is never a good thing. I have tried immune boosters and for the most part they do assist in preventing getting diseases. I use it sparingly, and wash my hands more times than necessary. I avoid touching people and putting my hands to my face or my head. I sneeze into my sleeve or tissue. I also avoid allergy causing trees, fauna and foliage. I also use hand sanitizer sparingly. When I feel a sickness coming on I use a mask. Flu is no joke. Please take care of yourselves.
NagoyaGaijin at 12:09 PM JST - 3rd November

I had several classes where nearly 70% of the students were out for flu. My school didn't close. (However, during summer break, 2 students with flu came to the school to work on projects, and the school shut down...I guess it is all in the timing)