Posted on 04/28/2003 3:55:14 PM PDT by sdk7x7
By KAREN MEANEY AND MELISSA KLEIN
NEW ROCHELLE — As city school officials sought yesterday to reassure the community that more possible cases of SARS were unlikely, some parents remained suspicious and students said they still worried about the virus.
Meanwhile, the New Rochelle High School student suspected of having SARS was discharged from the hospital yesterday and students who may have had contact with her Saturday, when she became ill, were being monitored, according to Dr. Joshua Lipsman, the Westchester County health commissioner.
Health officials said a chest X-ray done on the teenager, whose identity has not been made public, did not show pneumonia, meaning her illness is still classified as a suspected, rather than probable, case of SARS.
Lipsman said the flu or any of a number of nameless viruses that commonly circulate could have made the girl sick. As a precaution, she is expected to stay at home for 10 days after her symptoms subside.
The illness was suspected as SARS because the teenager spent April 13 to 17 visiting Toronto, which has experienced a large outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome. She returned to school the following week, but did not experience any symptoms while there. That makes it unlikely that others could have been infected, according to health officials. The student began experiencing a fever, cough and respiratory symptoms on Saturday and was hospitalized on Sunday.
"People become contagious when they are symptomatic," said Dr. Adrienne Weiss-Harrison, the school district's director of health services. "We are focusing on a small group of students who were at an activity with the ill student on Saturday."
Weiss-Harrison said about 40 students from New Rochelle High, Albert Leonard Middle School and Isaac E. Young Middle School were at an event outside New Rochelle with the student.
District officials have spoken to, or left messages for, the families of those 40 students to advise they should be monitored for signs of illness. Twenty-four are already being checked by nurses at their school. None has reported symptoms of illness, and all have normal temperature readings. They will continue to be monitored for seven to 10 days, Weiss-Harrison said.
District officials wrote to all families advising them of the suspected case of SARS and urging anyone with symptoms of acute illness to consult a personal physician.
Attendance was normal yesterday at the high school, Superintendent Linda Kelly said. This was despite some media reports that described the girl as having SARS rather than a suspect case of the illness.
"There's always concern when there's a threat of this kind of illness to our children," said Bobbie Roberts, whose son, Casey, attended school yesterday. "I have total confidence that Linda Kelly and the administration won't place our kids in any danger."
But Sherry Bruck, who has a child in Albert Leonard and one at New Rochelle High School, kept them home yesterday, even though she acknowledged her husband thought she was overreacting and others might, too.
"I just don't think this is something to mess around with," she said.
Dr. Flemming Graae, chief of child and adolescent psychiatry at Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla, said such fears were understandable when dealing with a new illness and were similar to the concerns raised when AIDS emerged. He said the SARS outbreak surfaced when many people may already be feeling apprehensive.
"SARS, of course, comes along at a time when we are all really so sensitive and hyper alert, if you like, to the international scene — the recent war, the danger of terrorism, biological warfare, bioterrorism and chemical attacks," he said. "It fits right into that already very hyper-acute state."
He recommended that parents feeling anxious about any potential danger facing their children check with the child's pediatrician.
"You want to go to the most educated person you know and trust," he said.
Kelly said support personnel were available to discuss concerns students might have. Some students felt teachers should have been talking about SARS.
Ninth-grader Charlotte Aagaard, discussing the problem with classmates Jessica Guiliano and Kim Circelli, suggested educators convene an assembly on what SARS is and how students could protect themselves.
"I'm nervous," Circelli said. "I have people in my classes who are being tested."
For 10th-graders Chris DeRaffele and Evan Laniol, it was hard to believe SARS might have struck a student in their school.
"People are joking about it," Laniol said. "But they're scared."
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