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SARS alert level in Japan

March 17, 2003 - Japan: the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry has decided to order prefectural governments to prepare for the possible spread of the infectious disease in Japan, according to ministry sources.

The World Health Organization has issued a worldwide alert on SARS.
In response, the ministry on Monday enforced Level 2 measures to deal with the disease. Under the ministry's guidelines on infectious diseases, Level 2 measures, the third-highest on a scale of zero to 4, are taken when there exists a slight chance of an infectious disease entering Japan. Each case must be handled separately.

It is rather unusual for such measures to be enforced when an infection develops overseas

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