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TOKYO: Japan's government on Friday reported its first suspected case of swine flu, a 17-year-old high school student who returned last weekend from Canada, stressing that the case had not been confirmed.
Local health authorities raised the alert after the boy visited a clinic in Yokohama port, south of Tokyo, on Thursday, complaining of fever, coughing and other flu symptoms, said Health Minister Yoichi Masuzoe.
"We will act assuming the worst case scenario," Masuzoe said in a late night televised press conference, urging people not to panic but to stay on alert and follow public health measures such as washing their hands often.
Japan, a densely populated island nation, moved into action quickly early this week to stop the virus at its borders soon after Mexico, the epicentre of the outbreak, reported its first infections and deaths.
Prime Minister Taro Aso said on Thursday, while visiting Beijing, he had ordered his government to do everything possible to prevent a swine flu outbreak in his nation of 128 million people.
Japan from early this week stepped up health checks at major international airports, with medical staff in protective suits, masks and gloves checking passengers from infected countries on board their flights.
The health ministry has reserved hundreds of rooms at hotels near Tokyo's Narita airport in case they are needed to quarantine incoming passengers.
Aso's cabinet ministers said on Thursday that military physicians would be sent to Tokyo's main airport, selected hospitals across the nation would set up special "fever clinics," and all live pig imports would be checked.
A Japanese woman on a flight from Los Angeles was rushed to hospital and quarantined on Thursday after testing positive for type-A flu, but further tests showed she did not have swine flu, said Masuzoe.
The suspected case, the high school boy who had spent time in Canada's British Colombia, "returned to Japan on the 25th of April," said the minister. "It was before we staged the current level of quarantine.
"It is OK if this case turns out to be negative," said the minister. "But if it is the new type of influenza, it will be important (to learn) where he went and with whom he came into contact," Masuzoe said.
The health alert is hitting Japan during one of the busiest travel seasons of the year, as crowds of travellers, many of them wearing face masks, filled airports at the start of the "Golden Week" spring holidays.
Mexico, the centre of the swine flu outbreak, has reported 84 probable deaths, eight confirmed so far from the influenza A (H1N1) virus.
The World Health Organisation on Thursday said it had confirmed 257 infections worldwide - including 109 cases in the United States, with one death, 97 cases in Mexico, with seven fatalities, and 19 cases in Canada. - AFP/de
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