School closings across the country due to suspected/confirmed cases of Swine Flu

[FourScore]

CALIFORNIA:
Flu fear closes school near Sacramento

As reports of swine flu cases accelerated worldwide, Sacramento County public health and church officials temporarily closed a Catholic school in Fair Oaks on Sunday because a student there is ill with what may be the new strain of influenza.

Local testing showed the ailing teenager from St. Mel School didn't have a standard flu strain, so samples were sent to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, which could have results as early as today.

A St. Mel seventh-grader had been in Mexico during the school's Easter break, then became ill and went home early on Monday, the first day of class after the break, said Kevin Eckery, a spokesman for the Catholic Diocese of Sacramento.

Two days later, an additional seventh-grader became ill and by Friday seven of the school's 40 seventh-graders were unwell, four of them with flulike symptoms, he said. One of those seventh-graders, but not the one who went to Mexico, is the student whose specimen was sent to the CDC, Eckery said...


http://www.contracostatimes.com/news/ci_12229624



SOUTH CAROLINA:
Newberry school closes over Swine Flu concerns

A private school in South Carolina has closed after some students returned from Mexico with flu-like symptoms.

Newberry Academy's decision to close Monday came as the number of suspected swine flu cases in Mexico climbed past 1,600 and death toll past 100. At least 11 cases has been confirmed in the U.S.

Newberry Academy officials said in a statement that seniors were in Mexico earlier this month and some had flu like symptoms when they returned. Calls to the school rang unanswered Monday.

State Department of Health and Environmental Control spokesman Jim Beasley said test results on the students could come back as early as Monday afternoon.

The agency has stepped up efforts to investigate all flu cases in South Carolina. There have been no confirmed swine flu cases in the state.

http://www.midlandsconnect.com/news/story.aspx?id=292182



OHIO:
Swine flu case diagnosed in Lorain County; Ely Elementary School closed for one week

Ely Elementary School in Elyria has been closed for a week by city health officals after a nine-year-old boy who attends the school was diagnosed with swine flu.

The boy and his family returned from Mexico last Monday. He attended class at Ely Elementary for four days last week.

Kathryn Boylan, Health Commissioner for the Elyria City Health District said Sunday that the boy is recovering at home and is being treated with the antiviral drug, Tamiflu.

"The child is doing just fine," Boylan said. "And for that we are grateful."

Swine flu can be spread by an infected person through sneezing or coughing. Boylan said cleaning crews wiped down desks at Ely Elementary School over the weekend. But health officals believed Sunday night that The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would be issuing a recommendation to close any school with a confirmed case of swine flu...

http://www.wkyc.com/news/local/news_article.aspx?storyid=112358&catid=3



NEW YORK, TEXAS, CALIFORNIA:
Swine flu fears close schools in NY, Texas, Calif.

Esti Lamonaca's illness started with a high fever, a cough and achy bones, just a couple of days after she returned from a spring break trip on the beach in Cancun with friends. By the weekend, her voice was hoarse and she was wearing a surgical mask.

The 18-year-old senior was one of a dozen students from several New York City high schools who traveled to Mexico earlier this month, and she thinks she has swine flu. Health officials have confirmed that eight students from her school have been infected with the strain, which has caused a deadly outbreak in Mexico. And they predict the number will grow once additional students, including Lamonaca, are tested.

Authorities in the United States have confirmed 20 cases of swine flu.

However, all of those sickened in the U.S. have recovered or are recovering. That's a stark difference from the outbreak in Mexico that authorities can't yet explain...

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jDrS0zyM9U2lh372d7r1FMjLVHrAD97QRQ780

[aquart]

1. If it's the same bug, how come they're dying and we're not?

People are flying this bug into countries all over the world and so far only Mexico has fatalities. WHY? WHY? WHY?

[FourScore]

3. That is so weird, isn't it? n/t

[Oregone]

5. Random idea (not science based really)...

What if it has a high variability in the incubation period...like 5 to 15 days, and the longer the incubation, the more severe the symptoms. So, while the short-incubated cases reveal themselves now (with mild cases), the real scary problems are still in the making.

Anyone know if incubation time of a virus correlates to severity of the virus? Or is a specific virus as virulent regardless of time it takes until symptoms appear?

[RaleighNCDUer]

6. Different demographics.

Most the US cases are children - and this strain has a low mortality rate with children, being most virulent in adults, 20 - 45.

It is these childrens' parents we should be worried about, and they are still in the incubation stage if they are infected.

As for the 'all over the world', I have yet to see that reported - I've only seen reports of Mexico and the US.

[benld74]

2. Dude! Where'd ya go for Spring Break?

[Mojorabbit]

4. We are up to 40 confirmed cases here

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/top/all/6394448.html
WHO: 40 confirmed swine flu cases in US, no deaths
© 2009 The Associated Press
April 27, 2009, 10:17AM



GENEVA — The World Health Organization says there are now 40 confirmed cases of swine flu in the United States and that it "very concerned" about the disease's spread.

WHO says none of the cases in the U.S. have been fatal.

But the U.N. agency says it could decide in a matter of hours whether to raise its pandemic alert level as a result of the increasing number of confirmed swine flu cases in Mexico and elsewhere.

Spain confirmed the first swine flu case outside North America on Monday.

WHO spokesman Paul Garwood said an emergency meeting is being led Monday by the agency's chief Dr. Margaret Chan.

He said in the Spanish case the disease was transmitted in Mexico and not passed among people in Spain.