Manhattan school closes as swine flu unease spreads; Experts: As many as 100,000 cases in U.S.

An Upper East Side private boy’s academy closed Monday, joining the 11 city schools already shuttered by swine flu, as the mayor mourned New York’s first flu fatality.

St. David’s, a private Catholic school on E 86th St, closed down after several students reported flu symptoms.

“They chose to close, we did not recommend they close,” said Mayor Bloomberg.

Queens assistant principal Mitchell Wiener became the city’s first swine flu fatality Sunday evening and the sixth person to die in the nation from the new virus that has spread like wildfire across the globe.

The federal government reported 400 new confirmed cases, meaning more than 5,000 Americans are now infected. Experts estimate the number is likely closer to 100,000.

“Science has no way of stopping this from spreading,” Bloomberg said.

“Unless you were to go wall yourself off, and not have any contact with other humans.”

City health officials revealed new details of the virus, saying it is primarily affecting youngsters between the ages of 5 and 17 – and they are being hit unusually hard.

Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden said increasing numbers of people are showing up in emergency rooms with flu symptoms and school nurses’ offices are packed.

“It’s unusual to see lots of children coming into nurses office with fevers and sore throats,” he said.

It is guaranteed to spread further, officials said.

“We usually see flu starting in children and then spreading to the rest of the population,” Frieden said. “We don’t have a lot of immunity to this flu.”

Wiener, 55, died at Flushing Hospital Medical Center four days after he was hospitalized with a temperature of 103.

Four students at Intermediate School 238 in Hollis also have confirmed cases of the new H1N1 virus.

Frieden said the number of students reporting feeling sick there is so large and sustained that it compares only to what happened at St. Francis Prep, ground zero for the city’s flu outbreak.

Wiener sickened quickly and dramatically: the flu shut down his kidneys and ravaged his lungs.

Doctors tried frantically to save him, even using an experimental device to expose his blood to ultraviolet rays. It was fruitless.

He died with his devastated wife, Bonnie, and three sons at his side.

“We are still in a state of shock but we are keeping it together. We’re doing the best we can, considering,” said his son Adam, who was then too overcome to say more.

Bloomberg publicly mourned Wiener’s death, recalling the pain of losing his own father in his 50s.

“There’s nothing that anyone can say that makes it any easier to accept,” he said

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Frieden said again that Wiener had an underlying medical condition that left him vulnerable, but the educator’s family has said his only previous ailment was gout.

The commissioner counseled New Yorkers who already suffer a chronic condition – like diabetes, emphysema or asthma – and have been exposed to someone with the flu to see a doctor even if they don’t feel sick.

Those with chronic conditions who develop a fever or sore throat should see a doctor immediately, he said.

Officials at the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have warned the nation to brace for more deaths.

In Geneva, the World Health Organization announced Monday that the pandemic warning level would stay at 5 out of a possible six.

WHO chief Dr. Margaret Chan said the biggest danger now posed by the swine flu virus is that it could mix with other flu strains and become more dangerous.

The vast majority of cases in New York have been mild and officials reminded citizens that even the regular flu can be lethal.

“Just to keep it in perspective, 1,000 people die every year in New York City of influenza and pneumonia,” said Health Department spokeswoman Jessica Scaperotti.

In total, 11 schools have been closed by the city Health Department, meaning more than 10,000 kids will miss class this week.

“With the virus spreading widely, closing these and other individual schools will make little difference in transmission throughout New York City,” Frieden said,

“But we hope [the decision] will slow transmission within the individual school communities.”

Bloomberg said the city would not change it’s process of shutting schools on a case-by-case basis, rather than order mass closings.

“Kids are going to catch it on the playground as easily as they will in school,” he said.

He said he hoped the long Memorial Day weekend would help disrupt the cycle of infection.

The schools closed Sunday are:

* Middle School 158 in Bayside, where 41 students out of 1,127 have fallen ill.
* Our Lady of Lourdes in Queens Village, where 37 out of 424 students are sick.
* Intermediate School 25 in Flushing, where 27 of the 1,320 students are ill. Two other schools were closed because they’re in the same building: World Journalism Preparatory High School and Special Education School 233.

Schools Chancellor Joel Klein praised the Health Department for handling the crisis in a “thoughtful and intelligent way” and brushed off criticism from teachers and parents who argued I.S. 238 should have been closed by last Monday, when large numbers of kids fell ill.

The school was ordered closed Thursday. Klein said the city did not plan to change its protocols.

“I don’t want to suggest we’re not learning anything,” he said after receiving an honorary degree at the Fordham Law School graduation.

“Every day we get new information and we make decisions based on that.” Klein insisted that more than arithmetic dictates school closing decisions.

“I don’t think you can do this by numbers,” he said.

The swine flu virus has sickened 8,480 people in 40 countries, killing 76, mostly in Mexico.