http://home.kyodo.co.jp/modules/fstSpecial01/index.php?cmenuid=89 Kyodo News on the Web: Daily international, Japan news, Japan News, national and local news coverage from the newspaper, breaking news updates, technology news, sports, reviews, listings. Kyodo News (C) All Rights Reserved http://home.kyodo.co.jp/modules/fstSpecial01/index.php?cmenuid=89 en http://home.kyodo.co.jp/modules/fstStory/index.php?storyid=490183 A key weekly report on influenza cases in Japan showed Friday that the outbreak of H1N1 flu has abated in the country, as the number of infections dropped to a seven-month low. The National Institute of Infectious Diseases reported that the number of people who visited medical institutions designated to observe the flu situation totaled 3,688 during the week through Sunday, or 0.77 per institution -- falling below one for the first time since early August. http://home.kyodo.co.jp/modules/fstStory/index.php?storyid=487434 The World Health Organization is recommending there be no changes in the alert level for the H1N1 pandemic, already at the highest possible phase, WHO Director General Margaret Chan said in a statement released Wednesday. The move came as a surprise, as for the past weeks WHO had said that the pandemic activity was seeing an overall decline. http://home.kyodo.co.jp/modules/fstStory/index.php?storyid=487269 The World Health Organization emergency committee suggested Tuesday it is premature to conclude that the H1N1 flu pandemic has passed its peak. The committee had been expected to assess that the pandemic has crested, but apparently backed off because of objections from experts who pointed out that infections of the virus were still spreading in West Africa and some other areas, according to sources close to the meeting. http://home.kyodo.co.jp/modules/fstStory/index.php?storyid=484324 The number of confirmed deaths from the H1N1 influenza has surpassed 15,000, the World Health Organization said Friday. Pandemic activity is declining across most of the world, including the United States and Japan, the WHO said. http://home.kyodo.co.jp/modules/fstStory/index.php?storyid=482411 Shionogi & Co. said Tuesday it will market a new drug for treatment of the H1N1 strain of influenza, starting Wednesday. The drug is named Rapiacta (generic name: peramivir) and is for intravenous drip infusion. It is the third medicine to treat the new strain of influenza to be made available in Japan, following Tamiflu and Relenza. http://home.kyodo.co.jp/modules/fstStory/index.php?storyid=482214 The government is considering canceling some of its H1N1 flu vaccine purchase contracts with foreign pharmaceutical companies amid the prospect of a surplus in vaccines against the new flu virus, health minister Akira Nagatsuma said Monday. ''We are now negotiating with the two (foreign) companies because it is likely that there would be more vaccines than necessary,'' Nagatsuma said at a lower house committee to discuss health and welfare issues. http://home.kyodo.co.jp/modules/fstStory/index.php?storyid=481809 Only one of Japan's 47 prefectures, Yamanashi Prefecture, hopes to use imported H1N1 flu vaccines and its request is only for 200 shots, the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry said Friday. The ministry Wednesday approved the domestic use of the vaccines made by British and Swiss companies good for a total of 9.9 million shots and their distribution in Japan will begin in early February. http://home.kyodo.co.jp/modules/fstStory/index.php?storyid=481424 The H1N1 strain of influenza virus has been detected in some pigs at a farm in Yamagata Prefecture, making it the second confirmed swine infection with the virus in Japan, following the first case last October in Osaka Prefecture, the farm ministry said Wednesday. The Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry said it asked the farm's operator not to move pigs out of the facility, and suggested the virus may have been transmitted by a human. http://home.kyodo.co.jp/modules/fstStory/index.php?storyid=481337 The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry approved Wednesday the domestic use of H1N1 flu vaccines made by British and Swiss companies, paving the way for their use in Japan around early February for inoculation from around mid-February. Japan has concluded import contracts with the two companies, with vaccines for 7.4 million people to be purchased from GlaxoSmithKline plc of Britain and those for 2.5 million people from Novartis AG of Switzerland. http://home.kyodo.co.jp/modules/fstStory/index.php?storyid=479437 Elderly people in their 60s and over are relatively immune to the new H1N1 influenza because it is similar to H1N1 viruses that circulated before 1943, a group of researchers said Friday in a study released by British publisher BioMed Central Ltd. The group comprising Japanese, U.S. and Dutch researchers, including Hiroshi Nishiura from the Japan Science and Technology Agency, came up with the finding by comparing the gene sequence of the novel virus' hemagglutinin -- a protein related to immune reaction in humans -- with those of H1N1 viruses from 1918 to the present.