page_title: 2009 swine flu pandemic in Japan
section_title: May
hierarchical_section_title: 2009 swine flu pandemic in Japan / Timeline / April / May
caption_attribution_description: English: Influenza-Shock at Osaka（may,2009） 日本語: 新型インフルエンザ（ブタインフルエンザとも）の影響でマスクをする市民ら（2009年5月MASA (talk)がJR大阪環状線車内で撮影）
context_page_description: The 2009 Japan flu pandemic was an outbreak of the H1N1 and the Influenza A viruses across Japan. The World Health Organisation raised the pandemic alert for influenza to level 4 in April 2009 following a worldwide outbreak of the H1N1 influenza strain. The first Japanese infections of H1N1 and Influenza A were both recorded early in May 2009. In August 2009, the government estimated that the virus strains had infected about 760,000 people. At the height of the pandemic in October 2009, it was estimated that 20% of the Japanese population had been infected and that there were on average more than 20 infected people in each Japanese medical facility. The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare reported 198 Deaths as of March 30, 2010. Japan put several measures in place to attempt to control the spread of infection including quarantining air travellers entering Japan who were suspected of having the virus and closing schools in areas of Japan with high numbers of infection. The pandemic ended in August 2010 when the World Health Organisation announced that worldwide influenza infection number were back to the seasonal average before the outbreak occurred.
context_section_description: May 1
  Another suspected case was announced by Health, Labour, and Welfare Minister in a 17-year-old male Yokohama high school student, who had tested positive for influenza A the day earlier. He turned out to have the Soviet strain of influenza A.
  May 8
  The first three cases of H1N1 in Japan were confirmed in patients who had spent time in Oakville, Canada and returned via Detroit.
  May 10
  A fourth case was confirmed in a student who had returned from a school trip to Canada.
  May 16
  Japan's first domestic case of infection was confirmed in Kobe in a male high school student without a history of traveling abroad. He was initially thought to have a seasonal flu, and therefore a Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test had not been performed on him in a timely manner. Two other students were suspected, and 17 other students claimed flu-like symptoms, but the route of the infection was not traceable.
  An emergency meeting was held in Kobe, and the decision was made to close public schools and kindergartens in several wards--Higashinada, Nada, Chūō—and in a neighboring city, Ashiya, for seven days. The annual Kobe Festival, planned for that day and the next, was cancelled.
  The number of confirmed high school cases in Kobe reached 8 by nightfall, many were members of the same volleyball club who had recently competed in an inter-scholastic match. In Osaka prefecture, one high school student tested positive, her sample having been sent to the Infectious Disease Surveillance Center. Other 100 students at the same school and some of their family members exhibited flu-like symptoms.
  Based on the prefectural plan of measures against new flu, Hyogo prefecture declared a state of emergency. Schools in Hyogo, Kita, and Nagata wards were closed for one week.
  May 17
  161 people were reported to have been in close contact with the infected students in Hyogo prefecture only.
  Masaro Kaji, an honorary professor at Kurume University, warned "There is a possibility of the H1N1 flu spreading among areas of frequent human traffic other than in the Kansai region, like Tokyo.
  The overall confirmed toll reached 56, including four cases discovered at Narita Airport in passengers returning from Canada.
  May 18
  In Hyogo and Osaka prefectures, elementary, junior high and senior high schools were closed for a week.
  By evening, confirmed cases in Japan totaled 144: 140 domestic cases from Hyogo and Osaka prefectures, and four other cases found during quarantine inspection.
  Domestic cases include employees of a railway kiosk and a bank; therefore, several railway kiosks in Kobe were closed and 70 other bank workers who had worked with an infected employee were told to stay home.
  May 19
  According to Osaka's educational committee, about 2400 students among 198,000 left, and 19,000 reported symptoms including sore throat, nasal congestion, and fever.
  Tonooka Tatsuhito, former chief of the city of Otaru's public health center, reported "Because clinical presentation of novel flu and seasonal flu show the same symptoms, there is a possibility that unaware of novel flu, patients have been treated at ordinary clinic as if they had seasonal flu," and that "this time, a doctor of Kobe submit sample (of first confirmed male high school student who never went abroad and didn't even have fever at that time) by chance, so it was recognized as novel flu. The infection is not only a problem of Kansai area."
  To avoid false positive reporting, the Health, Labour and Welfare Ministry added to the diagnostic criteria for the novel flu that a patient have a record of overseas travel but Tokyo metropolitan changed its policy to detect early stage novel flu and perform inspection even if no record of travel abroad existed.
  May 20
  Shiga Prefecture became the third prefecture to report infection: a 23-year-old man in Ōtsu.
  Tokyo Prefecture and Kanagawa Prefecture's Kawasaki city each announced their first confirmed cases in two 16-year-old high school girls, one living in Hachiōji in west Tokyo, and the other in Kawasaki. They went to the same Kawasaki high school and had traveled toge
caption: Due to fears of contracting the novel flu, some commuters on Osaka Loop Line wore surgical masks.
exif: {"Image Make": "CASIO COMPUTER CO.,LTD.", "Image Model": "EX-Z700", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "1.01", "Image DateTime": "2009:05:18 22:59:14", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image ExifOffset": "282", "Image PrintIM": "[80, 114, 105, 110, 116, 73, 77, 0, 48, 51, 48, 48, 0, 0, 0, 5, 0, 1, 0, 22, 0, 22, 0, 2, 1, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 5, 0, 0, 0, 1, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0, 1, 16, 128, 0, 0, 0]", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "33746", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "8764", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/30", "EXIF FNumber": "33/10", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2009:05:18 22:59:14", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2009:05:18 22:59:14", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "208/125", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "14/5", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "9", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1600", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1200", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "33622", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "0/0", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "55", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "High gain up", "EXIF Contrast": "Hard", "EXIF Saturation": "Hard", "EXIF Sharpness": "Hard"}