Queens School Tested For Swine Flu After Students Complain Of Symptoms
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The city Department of Health is performing tests at a Queens school to rule out the Mexican swine flu virus after dozens of students complained of flu-like symptoms on Friday.
The city's Health Department is awaiting test results on 75 students from Saint Francis Preparatory School in Fresh Meadows.
Meanwhile, the school is postponing events and sanitizing the building over the weekend.
No cases of swine flu have been reported in the city.
Health officials say although all swine flu cases in the U.S. are relatively mild, they are testing the students just to make sure.
"My chest is really tight, it feels like a 20-pound baby is sitting on my chest," said one student. "I have shortness of breath, I can't even walk up the steps, and as you can hear I'm stuffy and my coughing is getting really bad."
"Anytime that we hear of cluster of respiratory illnesses, we investigate," said Dr. Don Weiss of the DOH. "That primarily means finding out what the symptoms are and who's sick, and trying to make a diagnosis on them, which means we take tests and we send them to our laboratory."