Apr 30, 2009 6:01 am US/Eastern
More NYC Schools Investigated For Flu Outbreaks
City Health Officials Looking Into Potential Cases At Ascension School In Manhattan, 2 Brooklyn Catholic Schools
Reporting
Jay Dow
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
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The city's Health Department is investigating whether students at a school on Manhattan's Upper West Side have the virus as well.
CBS
The swine flu outbreak has led to more school scares in the New York area. So far, the health department has identified possible or confirmed cases at two schools in Queens – the St. Francis Preparatory School and PS 177 – and at the Ascension School in Manhattan.
Now, other schools are raising concerns about their own students.
Fear and panic have set in at the St. Brigid School in Bushwick, where parents rushed to pick up their children after a student tested positive for type-A flu virus. The sick sixth grader has a brother who attends St. Francis, where 49 students have come down with the swine flu, and hundreds have experienced symptoms.
"She had a high fever yesterday and I was with her in the nurse's office," Paulina Lopez, a classmate of the sick sixth grader, told CBS 2.
Meanwhile, the Good Shepherd School in Marine Park was closed after one student tested positive for the swine flu at a hospital.
A spokesman for the Brooklyn diocese says the Good Shepherd School in and St. Brigid School will be closed Thursday and Friday because of sick students.
Today, New York City Health Commissioner Thomas Heiden questioned the need to close schools.
"We did not recommend that they close. We did not feel that they had a reason to close, but we will evaluate the situation and if it's indicated we'll do the laboratory testing and see if there is a cluster of illness there," he said.
And it was anything but a typical day at the Ascension School on the Upper West Side. Along with students, masks, gowns and testing kits went through the private school's doors Wednesday morning.
A short time later 8-year-old Chanel Suero began to fill ill.
"My stomach is starting to hurt and my head is feeling a little dizzy," she told CBS 2. "I'm scared [of] the swine flu that's going around the community."
A doctor from the Department of Health tested the second grader for the swine flu, which is suspected of infecting seven students whose test results have not yet returned.
But Department of Education Deputy Chancellor Kathleen Grimm says city schools are not following President Obama's suggested protocol.
"If we can identify a cluster then the health department will go in and we'll do testing on a case-by-case basis and we'll make decisions about schools," she said.
Working parents are divided.
"Shutting the school down can be a real hardship for a lot of people and I don't know that one child being suspected is reason to panic everyone like that," said parent Virginia McDaniel.
Linda Sarcona thinks differently. "If there is a suspicion I think they should be precautious and shut down the schools," she said.
In New Jersey, the number of potential swine flu cases has risen to seven, up from the five reported earlier this week. And in Connecticut, the state has identified three probable cases of swine flu involving one child and two adults.
The New Jersey Department of Health has set up a 24 hour hotline to answer swine flu questions. That number is 1-866-321-9571.
Frequently Asked Questions: What Is Swine Flu?
(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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