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- Health officials have confirmed New York City's first case of swine flu involving a patient who hadn't been to Mexico lately and isn't linked to a school that was the site of the biggest U.S. outbreak.
As many as 1,000 New Yorkers are believed likely to have contracted swine flu in the past few weeks, the city's health department said, but until this weekend almost all of those victims were connected to the St. Francis Preparatory School in Queens.
The rest of the city's cases involved people who had recently returned from Mexico.
The emergence of a patient not connected to those two groups is notable but no cause for alarm, said the city's health commissioner, Thomas Frieden.
"Although H1N1 is likely spreading in the community, it does not appear to have caused more severe illness than seasonal flu so far," he said, using the scientific name for the virus.
As of Saturday the city said it had confirmed 62 cases of the virus in the city, up from its previous tally of 49. Another 17 cases are considered probable for the illness, including two more people who also had no link to a previously known cluster.
State health officials said Saturday that they had found three more probable cases of swine flu scattered elsewhere in the state, bringing the total of "probable or confirmed" cases of the illness outside of New York City to 16.
None of those people are seriously ill, and State Health Commissioner Richard Daines said many people being tested are turning out not to have the disease. Of the 43 specimens tested Friday by the state health lab, many turned out to be common types of flu.
Frieden noted that while hunting for swine flu, city authorities had found several people who were seriously ill with more common types of influenza. Flu kills 2,000 people a year in New York City.
http://www.nypost.com/seven/0502200..._flu_tests_find_new_type_of_victim_167314.htm
As many as 1,000 New Yorkers are believed likely to have contracted swine flu in the past few weeks, the city's health department said, but until this weekend almost all of those victims were connected to the St. Francis Preparatory School in Queens.
The rest of the city's cases involved people who had recently returned from Mexico.
The emergence of a patient not connected to those two groups is notable but no cause for alarm, said the city's health commissioner, Thomas Frieden.
"Although H1N1 is likely spreading in the community, it does not appear to have caused more severe illness than seasonal flu so far," he said, using the scientific name for the virus.
As of Saturday the city said it had confirmed 62 cases of the virus in the city, up from its previous tally of 49. Another 17 cases are considered probable for the illness, including two more people who also had no link to a previously known cluster.
State health officials said Saturday that they had found three more probable cases of swine flu scattered elsewhere in the state, bringing the total of "probable or confirmed" cases of the illness outside of New York City to 16.
None of those people are seriously ill, and State Health Commissioner Richard Daines said many people being tested are turning out not to have the disease. Of the 43 specimens tested Friday by the state health lab, many turned out to be common types of flu.
Frieden noted that while hunting for swine flu, city authorities had found several people who were seriously ill with more common types of influenza. Flu kills 2,000 people a year in New York City.
http://www.nypost.com/seven/0502200..._flu_tests_find_new_type_of_victim_167314.htm