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QUEENS (CBS) ― The swine flu outbreak spread from schools to jails with the hospitalization of a Rikers Island inmate, prompting the jail to cancel some weekend visits and dole out hand sanitizers and surgical masks.

The Department of Correction said that the flu hadn't spread to other prisoners in the 13,200-inmate system. But a correction officers' union head called for the city to close the jail where the inmate became ill and clean it just like the public schools shuttered in a flare-up of the virus.

"The entire facility needs to be decontaminated ... just like any other facility under the watch of the mayor," said Norman Seabrook, president of the Corrections' Officers Benevolent Association.

Six schools were closed this week after hundreds of students there became ill with suspected swine flu symptoms. Five confirmed cases were at an intermediate school in Queens, including an assistant principal who remained critically ill Saturday. A family member said Mitchell Wiener was improving slightly.

Health officials are tracking other schools with high absence rates. A spokesman for the United Federation of Teachers, Ron Davis, said it received reports from 18 other schools of high student absences and had forwarded the information to the city's health department.

Spokeswoman Jessica Scaperotti said the health department was "continuing to monitor the influenza-like symptoms in all schools throughout the city and will evaluate on a case by case basis."

The Rikers Island inmate, whose name and reason for being in custody weren't released, was improving since his hospitalization on Wednesday and wasn't in serious condition, Department of Correction spokesman Stephen Morello said.

The inmate entered the 2,600-inmate Anna M. Kross Center about a month ago and complained of cough and fever on Wednesday, Morello said. He was transferred to Elmhurst Hospital in Queens and on Friday was diagnosed with a probable case of swine flu, Morello said.

Morello said the inmate only came into contact with about 70 other prisoners in two housing units at the center; all had been examined, and none came down with the flu.

The jail canceled weekend visits for those inmates and advised any other inmates' family members who were feeling ill not to come, he said. Surgical masks were passed out to those inmates and officers on the two housing units; hand sanitizer was given to everyone in the jails, he said.

"We are acting with an abundance of caution," Morello said. "We continue to be on the lookout" for new flu cases.

Seabrook said the inmate was in the general population who can obtain passes to go to the jail's barber shop, commissary, law library and recreation yards. He said the inmate could have passed the virus to hundreds of others.

"He's standing next to inmates, next to other officers. Those people then become infected," Seabrook said.

New York City's first outbreak of swine flu occurred about three weeks ago, when more than 1,000 teenagers at a Roman Catholic high school in Queens began falling ill following the return of several students from vacations in Mexico, where the outbreak began.

Fear of contamination is why three additional New York City schools were closed. In total, five schools in Queens and one in Williamsburg, Brooklyn were closed.

"It appears at this point, at least in schools in New York City, in these days to be spreading more rapidly than traditional influenza spreads," New York City Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden said.

Each closed school is not an indication of where the virus is now as opposed to where it has been.

At Nathaniel Middle School, students started getting sick days ago.

"She complains about stomach aches, headaches; shes coughing, she has a lot of mucus coming out of her and shes been sleeping for a big part of the day," said Cathleen Youn, flu victim's sister.

Four students and the assistant principal of I.S. 238 in Hollis, Queens have tested positive for the H1N1 virus. Mitchel Weiner's wife said her husband urged his boss to close the school after numerous kids got sick with flu like symptoms. After he was taken tot he hospital it was.

"I'm outraged. What does it take to close a school? You can close a school because of snow but not because of illness that can be deadly?" said Bonnier Weiner.

"We close schools as infrequently as we can, partially because of the parents and because our kids need more time in school, not less. If they catch it in school or playground it isn't going to make any difference," Mayor Bloomberg said.

CBS 2's Deborah Garcia contributed to this report.



 

(© 2010 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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