NYC health officials: At least 8 Queens students likely have swine flu

BY TIM PERSINKO, CAITLIN MILLAT, JOHN LAUINGER AND RICH SCHAPIRO    

DAILY NEWS WRITERS

Updated Saturday, April 25th 2009, 9:13 PM

DelMundo for News/Anthony DelMundo

St. Francis Preparatory High School in Fresh Meadows, Queens. Health officials confirmed that at least 8 students probably have the swine flu after a senior trip to Mexico.

Acosta/Getty

A woman and her baby wear face masks as prevention against the swine flu virus in Mexico City on Fri. April 24, 2009. The mayor canceled all public events for 10 days amid fears of a global pandemic.

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Students sickened at a Queens school likely contracted the dreaded swine flu that has killed dozens in Mexico and is threatening to erupt into a global pandemic, the city's top health official said Saturday.

Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden said preliminary tests suggest the new bug raced through St. Francis Preparatory School in Fresh Meadows, where at least 100 students, some of whom returned from Mexico last week, fell ill.

"It is likely swine flu," Frieden said after eight of the first nine student samples came back positive for a strain matching the potentially deadly virus.

City officials are awaiting definitive results from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Frieden said the city is much better prepared to deal with the disease than is Mexico, where the virus has killed at least 81 people and infected more than 1,000.

Swine flu also has sickened 11 to 15 people in California, Texas and Kansas.

"It is clear that this is widespread," said Dr. Anne Schuchat of the CDC. "And that is why we have let you know that we cannot contain the spread of this virus."

The St. Francis students have mild symptoms of the virus - an unusual, fast-evolving mix of pig, human and bird flu, Frieden said.

Medical sleuths also were investigating whether children at a Bronx day care facility are infected. Two Manhattan families contacted health officials, saying they had just returned from Mexico and may have it.

"We are going to have to look at this minute by minute, hour by hour, day by day," Frieden said. "We are very concerned about what may happen."

The likely discovery of the virus prompted the Health Department to send out alerts to physicians across the city.

Frieden said the city's hospitals have been stocked with extra ventilators. The city also has ample supplies of Tamiflu and Relenza, flu-fighting drugs that have shown success battling the virus.

"We have been prepared for a worst-case scenario," he said.

Health authorities issued chilling warnings Saturday about the potential for the virus to gallop unchecked across the globe. The World Health Organization declared the outbreak an international "public health emergency."

"This virus has, clearly, a pandemic potential," WHO Director General Margaret Chan said at an emergency meeting of flu experts.

CDC researchers are working on a vaccine, but that could take months, and the virus appears to be resistant to the seasonal flu vaccine.

Some 200 students at St. Francis fell ill with fever, nausea, dizziness, fatigue and aches and were sent home Thursday and Friday.

"We are all freaked out," said Sandra Artopiades, 42, whose 16-year-old daughter Carolina left school early on Thursday with flulike symptoms.

"No one feels comfortable. If it is not swine flu, then what is it that spread through the school like wildfire?"

Despite the bug, several old classes held reunions at St. Francis last night. Most attendees brushed off concerns about the flu.

"I'm not nervous," said Margarita Calderone, 44, of Bayside, Queens, who was accompanying a friend from the class of 1979. "I just hope it doesn't get worse."

The St. Francis specimens are being tested by the CDC, and final results are expected today.

Gov. Paterson said the state health department has sent 1,500 treatment courses of Tamiflu to the city and a hotline has been set up for anyone with questions about the illness. The number is (800) 808-1987.

"I want to reassure all New Yorkers that we are taking appropriate measures to address these probable cases of swine flu," Paterson said.