Swine flu outbreak in New York raises fears for hundreds of children

[FarCenter]

James Bone in New York, Sam Lister, Health Editor and Mark Henderson, Science Editor

Hundreds of schoolchildren in New York may be infected with the swine flu virus, the city’s Health Commissioner said last night, as experts acknowledged that the world was on track for a pandemic.

“It does seem scary when they put you in isolation, but it goes away,” Stephanie Maglaras, 14, who tested positive for the virus after catching it at her school in New York, told The Times. “It’s something to be afraid of, but you have to go on with your life.”

The virus linked to the deaths of an estimated 152 people in Mexico has surfaced in countries as far apart as New Zealand and Israel.

It appears to have jumped from America’s largest Roman Catholic secondary school, St Francis Prep, in the borough of Queens, to a nearby school for autistic children, the Robin Sue Ward school. At least one pupil there has siblings at St Francis Prep, which is less than a mile away. Robin Sue Ward, which has 400 pupils, was closed yesterday after dozens of autistic children became ill with suspected swine flu. Teachers’ union officials arrived with boxes of face masks.

Authorities in New York are also investigating reported cases at a third school, Ascension School on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, after six children reported flu-like symptoms. Two people — a two-month-old baby from the Bronx and a woman in Brooklyn — were admitted to hospital in apparently unrelated cases. The baby’s condition is improving and the woman has been released. “So far, the swine flu here looks like the garden variety flu we see every year,” Michael Bloomberg, the New York Mayor, said. “All patients we know of are recovering, with the overwhelming majority having had only mild illness.”

The outbreak at St Francis Prep, which has 2,700 pupils, followed the return of a group of eight students from a spring holiday in Cancún, Mexico. Ms Maglaras, a pupil at the school who did not travel to Mexico, said that she started suffering symptoms on April 21 and went home. After staying at home for a day, she returned to school. “I thought I had a stomach virus,” she said. The publicity about the outbreak prompted her to get tested at a hospital, where swine flu was confirmed. “I am just getting back to my normal ways now,” she said. “Since Tuesday I have been out of it. I have not really been doing anything.”

Ms Maglaras has started a Facebook page called “Prep Students Tested Positive for Swine Flu” which last night had more than 100 members, mostly St Francis pupils but also including some parents. “At first I think they were hiding a lot from us, which is disappointing,” she said of school authorities. “But now everything is out in the open. I know that it has affected other schools too.”

<snip> http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/health/article6188729.ece