First Swine Flu Death Reported in New York
By A.G. SULZBERGER and ANEMONA HARTOCOLLIS
Published: May 17, 2009
NEW YORK TIMES online
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/18/nyregion/18swine.html?hp
The assistant principal of a Queens school who had been hospitalized with swine flu died on Sunday evening. It was the first death in New York State from the outbreak and came as city officials announced that five more Queens schools had been closed.
The assistant principal, Mitchell Wiener, had been ?overwhelmed? by the illness despite treatment with an experimental drug, according to Ole Pedersen, a spokesman for Flushing Hospital Medical Center, where Mr. Wiener had been a patient since last Wednesday.
Mr. Pedersen said that Mr. Wiener, the assistant principal of Intermediate School 238 in Hollis, one of the schools closed last week, had been on a ventilator and had slipped in and out of consciousness during his illness.
The closings announced on Sunday followed a sharp rise in the number of students at the schools who have fallen ill with flulike symptoms, brings the number of shuttered schools to 10 in Queens and one in Brooklyn.
Jessica Scaperotti, a New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene spokeswoman, said that there were no more confirmed cases of swine flu but that the department had decided to close the schools because of ?unusually high and increasing levels of influenzalike illness.?
A total of 105 students were documented with flulike illness at Middle School 158 in Bayside, Our Lady of Lourdes in Queens Village and a building in Flushing that houses three schools with a total of 1,320 students, including Intermediate School 25. All of the schools will be closed beginning Monday for at least five days, the department said.
?We are evaluating the situation and looking at all schools in New York City and making decisions on a case-by-case basis,? Ms. Scaperotti said.
Late last week, the city closed five schools in Queens and one in Brooklyn, after five cases of swine flu were confirmed, including that of Mr. Wiener. .
By A.G. SULZBERGER and ANEMONA HARTOCOLLIS
Published: May 17, 2009
NEW YORK TIMES online
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/18/nyregion/18swine.html?hp
The assistant principal of a Queens school who had been hospitalized with swine flu died on Sunday evening. It was the first death in New York State from the outbreak and came as city officials announced that five more Queens schools had been closed.
The assistant principal, Mitchell Wiener, had been ?overwhelmed? by the illness despite treatment with an experimental drug, according to Ole Pedersen, a spokesman for Flushing Hospital Medical Center, where Mr. Wiener had been a patient since last Wednesday.
Mr. Pedersen said that Mr. Wiener, the assistant principal of Intermediate School 238 in Hollis, one of the schools closed last week, had been on a ventilator and had slipped in and out of consciousness during his illness.
The closings announced on Sunday followed a sharp rise in the number of students at the schools who have fallen ill with flulike symptoms, brings the number of shuttered schools to 10 in Queens and one in Brooklyn.
Jessica Scaperotti, a New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene spokeswoman, said that there were no more confirmed cases of swine flu but that the department had decided to close the schools because of ?unusually high and increasing levels of influenzalike illness.?
A total of 105 students were documented with flulike illness at Middle School 158 in Bayside, Our Lady of Lourdes in Queens Village and a building in Flushing that houses three schools with a total of 1,320 students, including Intermediate School 25. All of the schools will be closed beginning Monday for at least five days, the department said.
?We are evaluating the situation and looking at all schools in New York City and making decisions on a case-by-case basis,? Ms. Scaperotti said.
Late last week, the city closed five schools in Queens and one in Brooklyn, after five cases of swine flu were confirmed, including that of Mr. Wiener. .
