Swine flu confirmed in NYC high school students
NEW YORK (AP) – New York City was dealing with a growing public health threat Sunday after tests confirmed that eight students at a private Catholic high school had contracted the same strain of the swine flu that has ravaged Mexico. Some of the school’s students had visited Cancun on a spring break trip two weeks ago.
In Mexico, health officials say a strain of swine flu has killed up to 86 people and sickened 1,400.
Canada became the third country to confirm human cases of swine flu Sunday with public health officials reporting six people falling ill in Nova Scotia and British Columbia.
New York officials previously had characterized the local cases as probable, but Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed that it was swine flu, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said.
About 100 students at St. Francis Preparatory School complained of flu-like symptoms; further tests will determine how many of those cases are swine flu.
Bloomberg stressed that the New York cases were mild and many are recovering, but said that some family members of students also had flu symptoms, ‘suggesting it is spreading person to person.’
He said that the virus likely came from Mexico.
‘We do know that some of the students from the school had a spring break in Mexico,’ Bloomberg said, surrounded by top city officials and members of Congress.
Federal health officials said Sunday that 20 swine flu cases have been reported so far in New York, Ohio, Kansas, Texas and California. Patients have ranged in age from 9 to over 50. At least two were hospitalized. All recovered or are recovering.
New York officials said the flu strain discovered in the patients here is the same strain as in Mexico, though all the New York cases are mild.
St. Francis is the largest private Catholic high school in America, with 2,700 students. The school canceled classes on Monday and Tuesday in response to the outbreak.
Parent Jackie Casola said Sunday that her son Robert Arifo, a St. Francis sophomore, told her on Thursday that a number of children had been sent home because of illness. On Friday, he said hardly anyone was in school.
Casola said she expected to keep him home from school on Monday, even if it was open. He hasn’t shown any symptoms, but some of his friends have, she said, and she has been extra vigilant about his health.
‘I must have drove him crazy, I kept taking his temperature in the middle of the night,’ she said.
In New York, state infectious-diseases, epidemiology and disaster preparedness workers have been dispatched to monitor and respond to possible flu cases. Gov. David Paterson said 1,500 treatment courses of the antiviral Tamiflu had been sent to New York City.
The city health department has asked doctors to take extra precautions and test patients who have flu symptoms and have traveled recently to California, Texas or Mexico. Bloomberg and health officials also urged people to cover their noses and mouths when they sneeze and cough, and not to leave the house for two days after the symptoms disappear.
‘The bottom line is there is an outbreak at St. Francis school and we are monitoring that outbreak very carefully,’ Bloomberg said.
In Ohio, state health officials said a 9-year-old boy who recently traveled to Mexico on vacation with his family has a confirmed case of swine flu and is recovering at his home. Officials do not know if the boy has the same strain linked to the deaths in Mexico, health department spokesman Robert Jennings said.