Posted on 04/24/2009 6:37:04 PM PDT by Crazieman
Department Of Health Officials Testing 75 Students At St. Francis Preparatory School In Queens
New York City health officials say that about 75 students at a Queens high school have fallen ill with flu-like symptoms and testing is under way to rule out the strain of swine flu that has killed dozens in Mexico.
The Health Department's Dr. Don Weiss said Friday that a team of agency doctors and investigators were dispatched to the private St. Francis Preparatory School the previous day after students reported fever, sore throat, cough, aches and pains. No one has been hospitalized.
The handful of sick students who remained at the school were tested for a variety of flu strains. If they're found to have a known human strain that would rule out swine flu.
Results could take several days. In the meantime, the school says it's postponing an evening event and sanitizing the building over the weekend.
Mexican authorities said 60 people may have died from a swine flu virus in Mexico, and world health officials worry it could unleash a global flu epidemic.
(Excerpt) Read more at wcbstv.com ...
That is going to be America's epitaph. Political correctness is bad for your health.
22 million people in Mexico City, 20 confirmed dead of a flu like virus..One in a Million. I wonder how many kidnappings took place in the same time frame?
Um...more like 30 million people.
I’m thinking off all the American college kids who were down in Mexico for spring break just 2 weeks ago??????
The -—— have come home to roost.
This is the direct fault of zero, for all the pork he sent Mexico...
LOL! You got that right!
Me and my lady have a Cancun vacation in the books for the end of May. Boyoboy am I glad she suggested trip insurance and I did not argue (as I normally would, but she said she ALWAYS gets it). So, for an extra 89 bucks each we’re good if we cancel...
http://www.cdc.gov/media/transcripts/2009/t090423.htm
MAGGIE FOX, REUTERS: Can you tell us a little bit more about the genetic characterization of this virus. What virus it resembles? I also wondered whether you found this just because we’re looking more intensely now or whether you think this is a newly occurring virus?
SCHUCHAT: Thank you so much for that question. At this point we really cannot differentiate the idea that this is something completely that we were from something that we found out about because we have much better surveillance.
We really strengthened our effort to track influenza during the season. We’ve strengthened laboratory capacities at the state health department and we’ve initiated reporting that is notifiable for detection of any untypable influenza strain.
So the Public Health system really knows that we want to know about these unusual occurrences. Ten years ago we were not doing that so we may be seeing something and actively investigating something that has happened many times before.
On the other hand the reason we’ve strengthened all these surveillance systems was to really be able to detect new problems early. And I think that it’s very possible that this something new that hasnt been happening before.
In terms of the genetic characteristics, I would like to have Dr. Nancy Cox address those in more detail from what I’ve already said.
COX: Thank you very much. The virus that has caused these infections is viruses are actually very interesting. They contain genetic segments as Dr. Schuchat said from four different virus sources.
So we have some gene segments that are North American swine influenza viruses. Some gene segments North American avian influenza viruses. One gene segment from a human influenza virus and two gene segments that are normally found from swine influenza viruses in Asia and in Europe.
We actually have complete genomic sequencing done for the first influenza viruses that were isolated from the ten-year-old and the nine-year-old. Those two viruses are very similar but not identical to each other. Now we have partial gene sequences for two additional cases from California.
We’ve found that the gene sequences from the viruses causing infection in those individuals are very, very similar to those in the initial two cases. So, we’re seeing basically a virus that appears to be spreading from person to person in humans and viruses have very similar genetic characteristics to each other.
Baby....ALWAYS get travel insurance!!!!!! I can’t stress that enough! Been in some different countries and have fallen ill.
Worth EVERY penny!
The numbers are more like 900 infections 60 dead.
Mexican housekeeper, janitor, or kitchen worker?
fyi ping
... at least 30 million. In fact, there is no reliable way to tell how many people live in Mexico City because there are huge crowded areas where people are living completely "off the grid", no city water, no sewer, and no billed electrical service.
Any chance we can paint a red mark on the front door of every libtard’s home?
Oh...I thought it just covered a trip cancellation. I did not realize it covered health issues abroad when you go on the trip. Thanks!
Call me a “classist”, but I’ll say that they’re a little coddled at this “prep school” and this will turn out to be a case of mass hysteria.
They have the flu.
Harrumph! I don’t believe that.
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