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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