Toddler at Yokota may have swine flu - Air Force News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Air Force Times

Toddler at Yokota may have swine flu

TOKYO — A 4-month-old American baby who arrived at the U.S. Yokota Air Base in Tokyo from the United States on Friday has tested positive for the type A influenza virus in a preliminary examination, Japan’s Foreign Ministry said.

The baby and the mother have been isolated at a medical facility at the base, while 13 other passengers seated near the baby on the airplane will be isolated until they are confirmed as not being infected with the new strain of the influenza subtype H1N1, the ministry said, based on information provided by the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo.

The baby had a temperature of above 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit when the plane with 260 to 270 military personnel and others aboard arrived from Seattle about 8:20 a.m., a ministry official said in a briefing to reporters.

Specifics regarding the baby and the mother are being withheld due to privacy, but the toddler’s only symptom is a fever, according to Maj. Neil Murphy Jr., a deputy public affairs officer for U.S. Forces Japan at Yokota.

The ministry official said the condition of the mother is not yet known.

The U.S. side has sent samples of the virus taken from the baby to the United States to determine whether it may be the new strain of influenza. It is expected to take three to five days for the results to be known.

Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare has offered to conduct further examinations on the virus in cooperation with the United States so it can obtain results sooner, according to the ministry official.

The U.S. side has been screening all passengers upon their arrival at the base using similar entrance surveillance methods as those at Japanese airports, such as questionnaires and thermal imaging, the U.S. Forces’ Murphy said.

”If trends are detected, information will be forwarded to the local Japanese Public Health Office, with proposed response,” he said in an e-mail.

The plane, chartered by the U.S. military, was en route from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport to Iwakuni and Okinawa, host sites of U.S. military bases.

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