A group of Queens high school students likely brought Mexico’s deadly swine flu epidemic to the city after they went on a wild spring-break party to Cancun earlier this month.
Some seniors from St. Francis Prep in Fresh Meadows took the trip over Easter hiatus two weeks ago. Days later, an outbreak of flu-like symptoms erupted at the school, leaving about 200 kids complaining of being ill.
Yesterday, city health officials confirmed that eight students “have probable human swine influenza” after testing positive for Influenza A, which officials say causes the swine strain of disease.
“We’re very concerned about what may happen,” Health Commissioner Dr. Thomas Frieden said yesterday.
The finding prompted city health officials to contact all New York hospitals and put them on alert for the bug.
On Friday, officials tested nine kids at the 2,700-student school after some complained of nausea, dizziness, headache and other symptoms resembling swine flu, which has already killed at least 81 people in Mexico and sickened more than 1,300.
“In every single case, illness was mild,” Frieden said of the St. Francis cases, adding that no one was hospitalized.
“Many of the children are feeling better.”
The agency took also samples yesterday from a Bronx day-care center where 30 kids were reported sick, and took two calls from concerned parents whose kids were in Mexico and felt sick.
Some Manhattan residents who recently returned from Mexico have also called saying they were ill.
It is unclear if the eight high school students who tested positive were among the group that spent spring break in Cancun.
One of those students, football player Andrew Tagliavia, complained of sore throat and fever two days after returning from Mexico.
His mom, Angela, took him to a doctor, who said he “had a fever and maybe strep throat.”
She didn’t want to believe that her son may have gotten caught up in what the World Health Organization said may soon be a global pandemic.
“I don’t think it’s the swine flu from Mexico,” Angela said yesterday.”I’m not panicking.”
The area’s last outbreak of swine flu came in 1976, when the disease killed a soldier at Fort Dix, NJ. The bug killed 50 million people worldwide during a pandemic after World War I.
Kathy Troina, a St. Francis volunteer who has two sons at the school who are not sick, said the symptoms spread like wildfire.
“I personally know five or six kids who went on that trip, and they all seem to be sick,” she said. “Then kids slap hands and touch things, and it spreads.”
Mom Anastasia Vrettos has two sons — a freshman and senior — who became ill Thursday. Her oldest, James, still had a nasty cough last night.
“This whole thing is very, very strange,” she said, adding that he’s been treated with steroids and is being monitored by the family doctor.
The Health Department is sending samples from the school to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for more testing.
If the illness is confirmed as swine flu today — when results are expected — officials plan to close St. Francis tomorrow, Frieden said.
He wouldn’t comment on the Mexico trip, but said, “We are looking at travel histories of the students.”
Spring break started April 9, and the students returned April 20.
The school was being sanitized this weekend, but that didn’t stop around 400 alumni from turning out for a reunion last night.
“We’ve been here all afternoon and saw nothing of concern,” said one reveler, who declined to give his name.
“The party was great.”
But not everyone was so enthused. “I wouldn’t have come into work today if I had known,” said a bartender for the event.
The rapidly spreading virus has caused Mexico to declare a state of emergency, and caused 11 reported cases of swine flu in the United States, according to the CDC — seven in California, two in Texas, and Kansas.
Additional reporting by Brandon Guarneri, Julia Dahl, Christina Carrega, Tim Perone and Post Wire Services