New York City closed three public schools for at least five school days because of “unusually high levels” of flu-like illness, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said.

“I know that many will find this information troubling, but information I’ve always thought is the best antidote to anxiety and we will continue to provide New Yorkers with clear, accurate and timely information as we have it,” Bloomberg said last night at a City Hall news conference, where he was joined by Governor David Paterson and city schools Chancellor Joel Klein. “By taking common sense precautions and not by overreacting we will get through this together.”

The male assistant principal at Intermediate School 238 in Jamaica, in the city borough of Queens, where more than 50 students have been sent home ill, may have had a pre-existing condition that worsened his illness, Bloomberg said.

Peru confirmed its first case of H1N1 Swine Flu, a 27-year-old woman who traveled to her Lima home from New York, Health Minister Oscar Ugarte said yesterday. Measures such as total shutdown and Social Distancing may not be as viable for containing H1N1 Swine Flu infection in New York as they were in Mexico – and this has the New York school system acting quickly to close down schools immediately.

School Closures

In addition to IS 238, or the Susan B. Anthony School, the schools shut in New York yesterday are Public School 16Q in Corona, Queens, where 29 students were documented with flu-like symptoms, and IS 5Q, the Walter Crowley Intermediate School in Elmhurst, Queens, where 241 students were reported absent.

“We have been carefully monitoring the H1N1 virus, and we’re taking this action today because there are unusually high levels of flu-like illnesses at three public schools,” Bloomberg said yesterday.

A total of 4,500 students attend the three schools. The earliest date the schools may reopen is May 22 under the order put in place after health officials discovered the influenza symptoms. Bloomberg said swine flu has been documented in the assistant principal and four students.

Swine FLu H1N1 News - H1N1 Swine Flu Cases Top 5000

The number of H1N1 Swine Flu infections continues to rise, and despite the recent cooling on the pandemic panic, WHO and CDC researchers are still concerned about the possibility of mutations in the H1N1 Swine Flu Virus that could lead to secondary waves culminating in a pandemic.

The number of worldwide swine flu cases on Tuesday passed 5,000, according to the World Health Organisation, as the virus spread to three more countries in Europe, Asia and Latin America.

The highest number of cases has been reported in the United States with 2,600 infections, including three deaths, and Mexico with 2,059 cases, including 56 deaths. The global total stood at 5,251, the latest data posted on the WHO website showed.

The WHO raised its alert to five on a scale of six two weeks ago, signalling that a pandemic was “imminent” after Mexico and the United States showed sustained local transmission of the influenza A(H1N1) virus.

With the WHO confirmed death toll at 61, Costa Rica reported its first fatality from the flu — believed to be a mix of bird and human flu which came together in pigs — and the United States confirmed a third death.

Because the new swine flu virus — technically called H1N1 — is a highly unusual genetic mix of bird, flu and human viruses, health officials worry that it could continue to mutate and return in a more virulent form for next winter’s flu season.

As the swine flu continues to spread across the United States — and most cases continue to be mild — federal health officials said Monday that they’re shifting their focus from individual cases of infection to trying to project what is likely to occur with the virus in the fall.

Costa Rica reported the death of a 53-year-old patient with swine flu on Saturday, the first death from the epidemic outside of a North American nation, while Japanese authorities scrambled to limit contacts with their first confirmed cases of the disease.

Worldwide: 3440 cases
United States: 2254 total cases of Swine Flu H1N1 flu, 2 deaths, 44 states have H1N1 Swine Flu Infections. The number of cases in the United States went from 1,639 to 2,254, with 104 people hospitalized, between Friday and Saturday afternoon.

It seems logical: Why not try to get sick with swine flu now, and get some immunity in case it comes roaring back this fall in a deadlier form? Sort of like those “pox parties” to get your kids exposed to a childhood disease.

Bad idea, flu experts say. It’s too risky.

It’s true that once your body has encountered a particular virus strain, it is generally better able to fight it off later on. Vaccines work by masquerading as germs, priming the immune system to attack particular bugs.

The current swine flu appears no deadlier than ordinary flu, but scientists worry that it could return in a more lethal form during the regular flu season in fall and winter. That’s what happened in the deadly pandemic of 1918, and there’s evidence that people who got sick earlier that year had protection when the lethal wave came.

This new trend is questioned by one doctor, who warns that people cannot control the type of H1N1 Swine Flu infection they are likely to get.

“I understand the logic (but it) leads you astray,” said Dr. William Schaffner, a flu expert at Vanderbilt University.

He said there’s no way to predict how bad a case of flu will be in a particular person. Given the risk of life-threatening complications, “this is not something where you want to do a biological experiment,” he said.

“You can’t control the infection that you’re going to get, and you may be the one, or your child may be the one, that gets a severe infection.”

What’s more, a person who decides to get sick can accidentally pass it along to other, more vulnerable people, even before any symptoms show up, he said.

The United States has reported 403 laboratory confirmed human cases, including one death.