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New York School Flu Outbreak Signaled Imminent Pandemic Risk
2009-04-30 04:01:00.21 GMT
By Shannon Pettypiece
April 30 (Bloomberg) -- A swine-flu outbreak at a New York
school that may have sickened hundreds of people helped persuade
global health officials that the first pandemic since 1968 is
imminent.
The symptoms of students at St. Francis Preparatory School
in Queens, a borough of New York City, are similar to those of
seasonal flu, the city health commissioner, Thomas Frieden, said
yesterday. What has officials concerned is that some of the 47
people at the school confirmed to be infected with swine flu are
likely to have spread the virus to hundreds of friends and
family members.
The World Health Organization is working with the city and
the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to track the
swine flu among relatives, staff and students at the school,
said Gregory Hartl, a WHO spokesman in Geneva. If the flu can
move quickly within such a community, it most likely can leap
national borders just as easily, a finding WHO officials said
helped convince the agency to raise its alert levels.
?We will learn many things from St. Francis, but it
reminds us that flu spreads and when it gets into an environment
that is closed it spreads quickly,? Frieden said at a press
conference yesterday. ?It is probable that it spread so quickly
because it is a new strain.?
Alert Raised
The WHO increased its global pandemic alert yesterday to
level 5, the second-highest alert, meaning a global outbreak or
pandemic is imminent. It is the first time the level has been
raised to 5 since the six-phase measure was adopted in 2005. The
last pandemic began 41 years ago when the so-called Hong Kong
flu circled the globe.
The number of confirmed cases in the U.S. jumped to 91 with
one death yesterday, while the number of confirmed cases
globally reached 148 in nine countries, according to the WHO.
None of the New York students or those infected by them have
died and the illness has been described city officials as
?mild.?
New York City?s health department has asked more than 1,000
students, teachers and staff members at St. Francis to fill out
questionnaires on their health and contacts over the past few
days, Frieden said.
All except two of the cases of swine flu in the city
confirmed by CDC laboratory tests are connected to St. Francis
and ?many hundreds? more at the school may have been infected,
Frieden said.
Eighty-two of 389 students at a nearby public school, P.S.
177, also called in sick with flu-like symptoms, New York City
Mayor Michael Bloomberg said April 28 at the news conference.
One student at P.S. 177 had a sibling at St. Francis, he said.
Trip to Mexico
The St. Francis outbreak began last week when students
returned from a weeklong spring break. New York health officials
said several traveled to Cancun, Mexico. In Mexico, 159 people
have died with suspected swine flu, and the country has closed
schools and restaurants, and distributed facemasks, according to
Mexico?s health department.
Stephanie Maglaras, a student at St. Francis, started
feeling sick on April 21, she said in an e-mail interview.
Throughout the week, students started going home ill and, by
April 23, the line at the nurse?s office stretched down the
hallway, she said. Maglaras said she had nausea, vomiting,
headache, body ache, coughing, sneezing and a runny nose.
Frieden said yesterday that it is likely that many, if not
all, of the students who have been ill at St. Francis have the
swine flu. During a two-day period, 224 students at St. Francis
went home sick, Frieden said. A sign on the school door
yesterday said the building would be closed until May 4.
?So Many Rumors?
?There were so many rumors going around as to why there
were so many sick students,? Maglaras said. ?The nurse?s
office was extremely overcrowded, to the point that there was a
line of students down the hallway. All of my classes were
missing at least 5 to 10 students.?
Maglaras, 14, created a Facebook.com page called ?Prep
Students Tested Positive for Swine Flu.? The page is designed
to help students share information about who has the illness and
what their symptoms are in response to limited information
provided by the school, Maglaras wrote on the Web page.
St. Francis officials didn?t respond to messages left on
the school?s voice-mail system.
Hospital Caseload
After five days of feeling sick, Maglaras, who lives in
Queens, went to New York Hospital Queens. The hospital has
treated more people than usual complaining of flu symptoms
though it hasn?t been told by the CDC whether any of those cases
have been confirmed as swine flu, said Scott Sieber, a spokesman
for New York Hospital Queens.
Maglaras?s father, Nick, confirmed that she is a student at
the school and has been sick.
Health officials began investigating the cases at St.
Francis on April 24 and have been sharing information with the
Atlanta-based CDC, Frieden said.
?What we?re seeing in New York City is that this virus is
acting like an influenza virus; so we shouldn?t be surprised if
there is ongoing and substantial transmission,? said Michael
Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease and
Policy, at the University of Minnesota, in Minneapolis. ?The
zillion-dollar question is how long this transmission activity
will last, and what will be the evolving picture of disease
severity.?
The U.S. can expect to see more cases, hospitalizations
and deaths, Richard Besser, the acting head of the CDC, said on
April 27.
The New York City mayor is founder and majority owner of
Bloomberg News parent Bloomberg LP.
For Related News and Information:
Health stories from the U.S.: TNI US HEA BN <GO>
Top stories about science: TNI SCIENCE WWTOP <GO>>
Top health stories: HTOP <GO>
Bloomberg Drug Search: BDRG <GO>
Drug Patent Expirations: DRGEXP <GO>
S&P Pharmaceutical Index Return: S5PHAR <Index> MRR <GO>
Stories on new research: TNI MEDICAL SCIENCE BN <GO>
Stories by this reporter: BIO PETTYPIECE <GO>
--With assistance by Tom Randall in New York, Jason Gale in
Singapore, and Dermot Doherty and Naomi Kresge in Geneva.
Editors: Reg Gale, Michael Waldholz.
via email -
New York School Flu Outbreak Signaled Imminent Pandemic Risk
2009-04-30 04:01:00.21 GMT
By Shannon Pettypiece
April 30 (Bloomberg) -- A swine-flu outbreak at a New York
school that may have sickened hundreds of people helped persuade
global health officials that the first pandemic since 1968 is
imminent.
The symptoms of students at St. Francis Preparatory School
in Queens, a borough of New York City, are similar to those of
seasonal flu, the city health commissioner, Thomas Frieden, said
yesterday. What has officials concerned is that some of the 47
people at the school confirmed to be infected with swine flu are
likely to have spread the virus to hundreds of friends and
family members.
The World Health Organization is working with the city and
the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to track the
swine flu among relatives, staff and students at the school,
said Gregory Hartl, a WHO spokesman in Geneva. If the flu can
move quickly within such a community, it most likely can leap
national borders just as easily, a finding WHO officials said
helped convince the agency to raise its alert levels.
?We will learn many things from St. Francis, but it
reminds us that flu spreads and when it gets into an environment
that is closed it spreads quickly,? Frieden said at a press
conference yesterday. ?It is probable that it spread so quickly
because it is a new strain.?
Alert Raised
The WHO increased its global pandemic alert yesterday to
level 5, the second-highest alert, meaning a global outbreak or
pandemic is imminent. It is the first time the level has been
raised to 5 since the six-phase measure was adopted in 2005. The
last pandemic began 41 years ago when the so-called Hong Kong
flu circled the globe.
The number of confirmed cases in the U.S. jumped to 91 with
one death yesterday, while the number of confirmed cases
globally reached 148 in nine countries, according to the WHO.
None of the New York students or those infected by them have
died and the illness has been described city officials as
?mild.?
New York City?s health department has asked more than 1,000
students, teachers and staff members at St. Francis to fill out
questionnaires on their health and contacts over the past few
days, Frieden said.
All except two of the cases of swine flu in the city
confirmed by CDC laboratory tests are connected to St. Francis
and ?many hundreds? more at the school may have been infected,
Frieden said.
Eighty-two of 389 students at a nearby public school, P.S.
177, also called in sick with flu-like symptoms, New York City
Mayor Michael Bloomberg said April 28 at the news conference.
One student at P.S. 177 had a sibling at St. Francis, he said.
Trip to Mexico
The St. Francis outbreak began last week when students
returned from a weeklong spring break. New York health officials
said several traveled to Cancun, Mexico. In Mexico, 159 people
have died with suspected swine flu, and the country has closed
schools and restaurants, and distributed facemasks, according to
Mexico?s health department.
Stephanie Maglaras, a student at St. Francis, started
feeling sick on April 21, she said in an e-mail interview.
Throughout the week, students started going home ill and, by
April 23, the line at the nurse?s office stretched down the
hallway, she said. Maglaras said she had nausea, vomiting,
headache, body ache, coughing, sneezing and a runny nose.
Frieden said yesterday that it is likely that many, if not
all, of the students who have been ill at St. Francis have the
swine flu. During a two-day period, 224 students at St. Francis
went home sick, Frieden said. A sign on the school door
yesterday said the building would be closed until May 4.
?So Many Rumors?
?There were so many rumors going around as to why there
were so many sick students,? Maglaras said. ?The nurse?s
office was extremely overcrowded, to the point that there was a
line of students down the hallway. All of my classes were
missing at least 5 to 10 students.?
Maglaras, 14, created a Facebook.com page called ?Prep
Students Tested Positive for Swine Flu.? The page is designed
to help students share information about who has the illness and
what their symptoms are in response to limited information
provided by the school, Maglaras wrote on the Web page.
St. Francis officials didn?t respond to messages left on
the school?s voice-mail system.
Hospital Caseload
After five days of feeling sick, Maglaras, who lives in
Queens, went to New York Hospital Queens. The hospital has
treated more people than usual complaining of flu symptoms
though it hasn?t been told by the CDC whether any of those cases
have been confirmed as swine flu, said Scott Sieber, a spokesman
for New York Hospital Queens.
Maglaras?s father, Nick, confirmed that she is a student at
the school and has been sick.
Health officials began investigating the cases at St.
Francis on April 24 and have been sharing information with the
Atlanta-based CDC, Frieden said.
?What we?re seeing in New York City is that this virus is
acting like an influenza virus; so we shouldn?t be surprised if
there is ongoing and substantial transmission,? said Michael
Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease and
Policy, at the University of Minnesota, in Minneapolis. ?The
zillion-dollar question is how long this transmission activity
will last, and what will be the evolving picture of disease
severity.?
The U.S. can expect to see more cases, hospitalizations
and deaths, Richard Besser, the acting head of the CDC, said on
April 27.
The New York City mayor is founder and majority owner of
Bloomberg News parent Bloomberg LP.
For Related News and Information:
Health stories from the U.S.: TNI US HEA BN <GO>
Top stories about science: TNI SCIENCE WWTOP <GO>>
Top health stories: HTOP <GO>
Bloomberg Drug Search: BDRG <GO>
Drug Patent Expirations: DRGEXP <GO>
S&P Pharmaceutical Index Return: S5PHAR <Index> MRR <GO>
Stories on new research: TNI MEDICAL SCIENCE BN <GO>
Stories by this reporter: BIO PETTYPIECE <GO>
--With assistance by Tom Randall in New York, Jason Gale in
Singapore, and Dermot Doherty and Naomi Kresge in Geneva.
Editors: Reg Gale, Michael Waldholz.
