Six die at Japanese hospital from suspected Hong Kong flu
By BNO News
AKITA, JAPAN (BNO NEWS) -- Six elderly people have died and dozens more are ill from a suspected outbreak of Hong Kong flu at a hospital in northwestern Japan, according to a local news report on Saturday.
The Kyodo news agency reported that six people - four men in their 60s to 90s and two women in their 70s and 80s - have died between Sunday and Friday at a hospital in Kitaakita, in Akita Prefecture. They tested positive in simple flu test.
A local health center confirmed through further tests on one patient that the person was infected with the Hong Kong A-type flu virus, which was responsible for a 1968 flu pandemic that killed more than one million people worldwide.
Kyodo reported that a total of more than forty people are still suffering from flu-like systems, all whom are patients or staff at the hospital, and have been given influenza vaccinations.
There were no immediate reports of infections outside the hospital.
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Six people have died after becoming infected with the  virus in the city of  located in the  of northern Japan.

Among the dead were four men and two women, aged 60 to 90 years old. All of them died between Monday November 1, and Friday November 5, while in a local hospital. Dozens more are suspected to be ill with the virus while another 30 others, mostly doctors and other hospital personnel, are being tested for the virus.

Preliminary tests on the patients showed a positive result for the infection while further laboratory tests confirmed the presence of it.

The virus killed nearly 1,000,000 people around the globe in 1968 and 1969. It was a form of the  strain of . So far there are no reports of anyone infected outside hospital grounds.