New flu strain spreads to Turkey and India
ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkey and India confirmed their first cases of H1N1 flu on Saturday, all involving air passengers arriving from the United States.
Thirty-eight countries have now confirmed cases of the flu strain, a mix of swine, human and avian viruses, which last month prompted the World Heath Organization to raise its global pandemic alert level to 5 on a 6-point scale.
The western Japanese city of Kobe said it would close some public schools for a week after eight people were confirmed as being infected with the new H1N1 influenza, commonly known as swine flu.
Three of the eight were teenage students from the same school -- the first confirmed cases in Japan involving people who had not been overseas. The other five were from another school, Kyodo news agency said.
The WHO, whose data lags national tallies, had earlier put the number of confirmed worldwide cases at 8,451, with 72 deaths.
The vast majority of deaths -- 66 -- have been in Mexico, where the outbreak started. The United States has reported four, and Canada and Costa Rica one each.
FAMILY QUARANTINE
Turkey identified its first two cases in a family traveling to Iraq from the United States, health officials said.
A 26-year-old American man, traveling via Amsterdam, was found to be suffering from the virus after arriving at Istanbul's Ataturk Airport en route to Iraq on Friday, Turkish Health Minister Recep Akdag said. Thermal cameras at the airport detected that he had a high fever.
Healthcare workers then determined his mother was also infected, Harun Celik, Health Ministry spokesman, told Reuters.
Local news media had earlier reported the man's wife had contracted the disease, but Celik denied those reports, saying the rest of the family's health was fine.
The mother and son were quarantined along with other family members and were under observation at a Turkish research hospital, where they were being given anti-viral medication, Akdag said.
The Iraqi-American family was traveling on a KLM aircraft to Istanbul that was carrying 163 passengers, most of whom are now being monitored for signs of the flu, said Akdag.
"Everything is under control," Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan told reporters. "Everything is being monitored closely."
India's health ministry on Saturday confirmed its first case of the H1N1 flu in an Indian man who had traveled from the United States, via Dubai, to the southern city of Hyderabad.
"He was identified at the screening at the airport and was quarantined, and his samples were drawn and they have tested positive," said health official Vineet Choudhary.
Those close to him had been isolated and their health was being monitored, Choudhary said. His co-passengers on the flight to India were also being tracked down.
(Additional reporting by Jason Rhodes in Zurich and Matthias Williams in New Delhi; writing by Mark Trevelyan)
