Young people susceptible to swine flu

A 16 year old girl from Tokyo is the latest victim of swine flu, which has now affected over 41 countries. The girl was returning from New York and is the first case in the Japanese capital, the largest metropolis in the world with 35.7 million inhabitants. She was taken to hospital with a high temperature, coughing and a swollen throat. The Japanese government this week shut 4,000 schools to avoid further contagion: the girls’ case proves that so far there is no human-to-human transmission in Japan and the virus was transported from America.

The number of confirmed A (H1N1) infections in Mexico, the epicentre of the outbreak, rose to 3,817, health authorities said there, adding 75 people have died. The number of confirmed swine flu cases now stands at 10,243 and the number of dead at 80. China has reported a fifth case, one in Taiwan and a dozen in Australia.

Although the World Health Organisation has maintained its alert level at 5 (out of a scale of 6), many governments are scaling down quarantine measures. In Hong Kong, as of today, all those who come into contact with an infected person will not be isolated, instead they will have to go through daily check-ups and take flu vaccines.

Meanwhile, Egyptian Health Minister Hatem al-Gabali warned of the dangers posed by swine flu to millions of Muslim pilgrims travelling to Saudi Arabia. While he could not bar Egypt's estimated 600,000 pilgrims from travelling as such a decision was up to clerics, Gabali said he could “open quarantines and say: no one will return from Saudi Arabia to his home.

The United States are the second worst hit nation with 5710 cases and 8 dead.

Academics are trying to explain how over 60% of the cases are people between the ages of 5 and 25. It would seem that the older generations, perhaps thanks to past viruses, have developed a resistance to swine flu.