Swine Flu Closes More Schools as Worldwide Cases Exceed 10,000

May 20, 2009— -- A month after swine first appeared on the global health scene, a growing number of schools in New York, Houston and Boston have shut their doors as health officials take measures to contain its spread among students.

The school closures underscore the fears surrounding the novel variant of the H1N1 virus -- a pathogen to which few in the world have immunity, health officials have said.

As of Wednesday morning, there were 26 schools closed in New York, 10 more than on Monday, and another school in New Jersey was shut down because of tensions about the new virus.

The closings appear to be having an effect on the city's overall school attendance rates. In what Department of Education officials call a "significant drop," on Tuesday only 85.5 percent of New York City's 1.1 million students were present, compared with 88.5 percent a week before. In Queens, only 83.2 percent of students were present for school on Tuesday.

With the closures come more evidence of worry among the public -- at least in these cities. Even as New York health officials said the Monday death of a 16-month-old toddler who had flulike symptoms did not have swine flu, hospital emergency rooms in the city filled with concerned parents and sick children. At Elmhurst Hospital -- the same medical center where young Jonathan Zamora of Queens was admitted with flulike symptoms and later died -- more than 400 people crowded the emergency department on Tuesday alone.

Hospitals in other cities around the country have reported no similar surge in their emergency departments, with only a few noticing a modest uptick in patients with flulike symptoms.

However, the story is a far different one in New York City. St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center reported that it served 476 patients in its emergency department Tuesday -- a new record. Bellevue Hospital Center noted a "massive influx of patients" and "substantial delays" in its emergency department, and SUNY Downstate Medical Center said it had a large increase in traffic in its pediatric emergency room.

The new tensions about the outbreak come days after the city's first confirmed death of a patient with swine flu. Late Sunday, 55-year-old assistant principal Mitchell Wiener became the sixth American to die from complications of the swine flu.

On Monday, New York officials closed 16 schools after 103 students in four schools came down with influenza-like symptoms in the past week.

Health officials say they are not surprised by swine flu's tenacity.

"In fact, it has been taking off," Dr. Scott Harper of the New York City Health Department told "Good Morning America" today. "That's what we were expecting to see eventually, because that's what influenza does."