Alternative Conference to SCMS

[Joseph Murphy]

Dear Colleagues,
There is a big difference in the response between a week ago and the  
response now.  There were quarantines coming out of Narita two weeks  
ago, but none of the quarantined people ended up testing positive, and  
the movement by the government is toward a "cooler" response.  The  
initial guidance to local governments from the Ministry of Health was  
to take the policies put in place re SARS in 2003 and apply them "with  
discretion."  But nobody gave any hints what "discretion" meant, and  
in the early stages (what Chiyoda-ku was dealing with), this was  
interpreted as no discretion.  But the consensus being reached in the  
last few days is that while this flu is spreading at epidemic  
proportions, the toxicity is not nearly as high as SARS, rather is  
more like seasonal flu (from which of course many, many people die  
every year), and if treated promptly, is not a serious worry for  
otherwise healthy people.
So, when 2 high school females returned from a Mock-UN conference in  
NYC yesterday, evinced swine flu symptoms on the plane, and later were  
confirmed to have H1N1, I have not heard that they quarantined anyone,  
even though one girl took the two hour trip home from the airport in a  
limousine bus with 30 other people.  They are monitoring all the  
people around them, but not quarantining.  Similarly, both Tokyo  
municipal and Kanagawa-ken have called for a measured response, and  
have neither moved to close schools nor cancel events.  (contrast is  
w/ Osaka/Kobe, where the transmission route is not clear, and they  
have closed schools massively).
So, the sense is they are getting a handle on the way this virus  
works, and feel okay with a measured, situation-by-situation  
response.  I am not blaming Chiyoda-ku, they were dealing with a  
different set of information a week ago.  But for now, I think anyone  
coming to Japan can feel confident to be dealing with a reasonable  
response.
yours,
J. Murphy


On May 15, 2009, at 2:08 PM, YW wrote:

> a question about quarantine.
>
> What has been done in China, according to what I read, is that if one
> person is tested swine flu positive, then people sitting close to
> him/her in the plane or any other public space will also be  
> quarantined
> for a week at least.
>
> Does anybody know if Japan is doing similar things?  It would be very
> upsetting if one makes the trip to Tokyo only to get quarantined  
> because
> someone else in the plane is infected.
>
> Thanks!
>
> Yiman W
> Aaron Gerow wrote:
>>>
>>> It is absolutely necessary that we can confirm as soon as possible
>>> the number of participants, so PLEASE CONVEY THE FOLLOWING
>>> INFORMATION to aaron.gerow at yale.edu by 6:00 AM (Eastern Daylight
>>> Time), March 16, 2009:
>>
>> The deadline, of course, should be MAY 16. Sorry about that.
>>
>> Aaron Gerow
>>
>