No. of flu patients in Japan tops 1 million in one week

Friday 30th October, 03:36 PM JST

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as_the_crow_flies at 10:30 PM JST - 30th October

Don't you love the way they move the goalposts every week. One week it's the number of new cases, then they create a new concept, 'group infections' (never explained), then hey presto, this week it's new cases. How can you possibly track anything? Nothing surprising in the figures, however they measure them. This has been building steadily, specially since that wonderful petri dish that is school went back in September. Culturing nicely and now feeding back through family members to the adult population. I don't notice much hysteria to be honest. I think if anything people seem to be unaware just how much it's out there. Anyway, let's hope everyone manages to get a mild dose before it mutates into something nastier and then we're all immune to an extent.
lunchmeat at 10:38 PM JST - 30th October

Non-news. "Patients" does not equal deaths but it is a big number.

So what?

In a modern country that I know of, statistically, at least 35 thousand will die this year. There is nothing that you can do about it, either.
tshirt at 10:57 PM JST - 30th October

Masks don't do anything, the influenza virus is 130nm or the same exact size as HIV. That is 0.000000130 meters.

Wearing a mask is like having a house with all of the windows open... all of the mosquitoes and and cockroaches can still get in.
tigerguy at 11:00 PM JST - 30th October

@tshirt, Keep your shirt on! People can make that choise if they want to inject that amount of mercury into their bodies.
JHansen at 11:10 PM JST - 30th October

WHO knew that the flu was contagious.
usaexpat at 11:35 PM JST - 30th October

That's a pretty high number but thankfully the death toll has been pretty low. The big problem of course is that by the time the vaccine is widely available everybody will have had the flu.
Fadamor at 12:36 AM JST - 31st October

@tigerguy - your "warning" was stupid. 'nuff said.

@tshirt - masks are only useful in preventing YOU from getting OTHER people sick. Are they 100% effective? No. But they're way better than nothing if you're sick and have to go out in public.

What makes this strain different (and therefore all the additional press) is that it seems to be targeting a different demographic than your typical annual influenza strain. This demographic along with the "normal" flu fatalities this year will mean a wider spectrum of the population will be dying due to one flu or another.
BrightEyes at 03:29 AM JST - 31st October

kirakira,

Breast milk is about the best thing you can do. It will transfer antibodies. My wife and I both got knocked out with something nasty when our son was about 4 months old. The boy was stuck with us the whole time and had nary a sniffle nor a rise in body temperature. The human body is an amazing thing.

I hope you have a safe and easy delivery.
kirakira25 at 11:31 AM JST - 31st October

The flu shot contains half the mercury of a can of tuna or a few pieces of sashimi.

t-shirt thanks so much for this info - I was wondering how the mercury content compared to normal everyday dietary sources. How interesting!

Brighteyes - thanks for the good wishes! I hope so too. The last two were really easy but this time the little tyke is already over 3 kgs with still 3 weeks to go! The doctor reassures me that "his head is small" but he would tell me the moon is made of blue cheese if it would shut me up about getting an epidural!

Everyone tells me that breast is best and I am hoping this will give him enough protection - especially if I can stay off the G&T but with my mother arriving next week with a bottle of duty free Bombay Sapphire I don`t know for how long I can resist!

I don`t think he can have any flu shot until he is 6 months old anyway, by which time I am hoping the worst of all this may be over.
Hephatsheput at 09:05 PM JST - 1st November

Actually, there's a lot more mercury than that in the flu shot. It's far more dangerous to take in the mercury than risk getting the flu.
NagoyaGaijin at 11:56 AM JST - 3rd November

What I find perplexing is the extreme reactions here over this flu. For example, the school in which I work shut down for 3 days in July because 2 students showed up displaying symptoms. However, this was also shortly after the start of summer holidays for the students. (The sick ones came to work on big projects, but there were no classes.) I thought the reaction a bit extreme at the time. Last week, I had about 3 classes with around 30% attendance because...SURPRISE! The students had the flu. However, this time, my school has done nothing. I find this lack of reaction to be a bit extreme. All or nothing, I suppose. I just hope that the outbreak blows over and that deaths are minimal (I would say "I hope no one dies," but that is a bit unrealistic.)
elbudamexicano at 07:44 AM JST - 4th November

In the USA over 100 children have died, so I do not agree with comments here that Japan is over reacting. Even 1 death is 1 too many!
stirfry at 04:29 PM JST - 5th November

every year, worldwide, 500000 people die from SEASONAL flu
kokuryu at 12:53 AM JST - 6th November

You also have to consider that 1.4 million is over 1% of Japan's total population... Thats a significant number... And when you consider that 5% to 20% of the population comes down with the regular flu each year... The H1N1 mortality rate though is extremely high compared to the season flu, so if 20% of the population eventually gets sick, we may say 2% of the population die from H1N1 - thats scary. The fewer that get sick, the better.
knews at 02:11 AM JST - 6th November

Isn't this all just one of nature's ways of trying to manage the population? Plus Darwin's survival of the fittest? By getting the flu, it makes some stronger but some will die. Then as our immunity increases, nature has to serve up a variant that will again catch the weak off guard. By weak I mean those who may have other underlying health problems that are exacerbated by the flu. Tens of millions used to die worldwide when there were large outbreaks years ago. Now we are cleverer and more skilled at making medicine so one assumes it is only natural that future flu strains will be more and more aggressive and resistant to treatment.

Anyway, I agree that the effectiveness of wearing masks, washing hands over and over the same day, and gargling like there's no tomorrow is all a bit overrated.