Health

NEW YORK (CBS) ― Three more public schools were shut down Friday after more students reportedly tested positive for the swine flu or H1N1 virus, bringing the total to six schools closed as a result of the most recent outbreak in New York City.

The three latest schools affected are IS 318 in Williamsburg in the Brooklyn borough, JHS 74 in Bayside, and PS 107 in Flushing -- both in the Queen's borough of New York City.

Nearly 300 students called out at IS 318 in Brooklyn. "When I came to homeroom a lot of my friends were absent and then during classes, period after period, kids started getting sick and had to go to the nurse," said Lisa Landry, a sixth grade student at the school.

Laundry and her mother, Wendy, are concerned a swine flu cluster may have struck the school.

"You worry, you don't know what's going on in there, so you're a little worried. It's so many schools that's already closed," Wendy told CBS station WCBS-TV in New York.

It may appear the swine flu is back, but Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden says it never went away.

"It appears at this point, at least in schools in New York City, in these days to be spreading more rapidly than traditional influenza spreads. We don't know why that is," said Frieden.

On Thursday the city shut down PS-16 in Corona, IS-5 in Elmhurst and IS-238 in Hollis after dozens of students came down with flu symptoms.

At least four students at IS 238 have confirmed cases of swine flu. While most have mild symptoms, the assistant principal, Mitch Wiener, has the most serious case of swine flu the city has seen so far, and he's hospitalized in critical condition. Wiener's family believes the school should have closed sooner.

"I'm outraged. What does it take to close a school? You can close a school because of snow but not because of illness that can be deadly?" said Wiener's wife, Bonnie.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg says the latest cases of swine flu are generally mild though, and that with the exception of Wiener, victims have recovered quickly.

The affected will be closed until next Friday, May 22.

The mayor said the assistant principal of IS-238, Mitch Wiener, may have had pre-existing health problems -- but on Friday, Wiener's son Adam said his father had only suffered previously from gout, which he said was unrelated to his current condition. He said his 55-year-old father is now suffering from pneumonia, kidney failure, dehydration and a lung infection.

"I don't know where people got that," Adam Wiener, 23, said Friday morning as he prepared to return to the hospital where the family was keeping vigil.
"The only pre-existing condition he has is gout, which is unrelated to complications he's experienced now."

"If you are a parent, keep your children at home if they have any flu-like symptoms," said Bloomberg. "But if you are seriously ill, go to the hospital." 
 
Frieden says the virus isn't more virulent than seasonal flu but appears to be spreading more rapidly than other flu strains. He says the "large clusters" in the schools is "a little surprising."

"I think it's fair to say that most New Yorkers turned their back to the virus, but we have not," Bloomberg added.

Meanwhile, maintenance workers wearing masks scrubbed desks, floors and door handles all morning Friday to try and combat the fears of the spreading outbreak.

Education Department spokeswoman Margie Feinberg said maintenance crews were thoroughly cleaning and disinfecting two middle schools and one elementary school in Queens where hundreds of students were sent home sick this week.

It isn't unusual for flu cases to ebb and surge as the virus moves through a population during flu season. The virus tends to disappear as the weather gets warmer and more humid.

Dr. Isaac Weisfuse, a deputy commissioner of the health department, said investigators are trying to learn more about why the disease has spread erratically.

Schools are a good incubator for illness in general, he said, because space is tight and youngsters often don't practice the best hygiene.

So far, the virus has not proved to be more infectious or deadly than the seasonal flu.

Adam Wiener said his father had been sick since at least last weekend with flu-like symptoms "but we didn't think anything of it." Then early Wednesday, he said, the family called 911 after his father began "hallucinating and wasn't coherent."

Wiener's case marks the most severe illness in the city since the city's first known cases of swine flu appeared in late April. At least five schools in the city were closed then, but all have since reopened. Officials say the students who have fallen ill in this latest surge of illness appear to be experiencing mild symptoms, similar to routine flu.

At the shuttered Walter Crowley middle school in the Elmhust section, a worker in a mask was seen mopping down the cafeteria on Friday. Police cars were parked outside the entrances, and a sign on the door said it was temporarily closed. At that school alone, 241 students were reported out sick with flulike symptoms.

People at IS-238 said students started going home sick on Tuesday and Wednesday, alarming parents.

Adam Wiener said his father has been mostly unconscious because of sedation since Wednesday evening, breathing with the help of a ventilator.

One of Wiener's 18-year-old twin sons, Jordan, said his father had been awake briefly and asked him about his leg, which he had injured playing baseball.

"He's always about his kids first," Jordan Wiener said Friday. "He was asking me how I was feeling and how my season's going."

Last month, a swine flu outbreak at the St. Francis Preparatory School and PS 177 in Queens forced officials to shut down those schools and several others linked to those confirmed cases. Bloomberg said there appears to be no links between those schools and the three closed on Thursday.

(© 2010 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)