http://www.nynewsday.com/news/local/nyc-sick0323,0,1036869.story?coll=nyc-homepage-breaking2
BY WIL CRUZ AND ELLEN YAN
STAFF WRITERS
March 22, 2005
Health and school officials descended on the Bronx High School of
Science Tuesday, testing bathrooms and the cafeteria in an effort to
determine what made hundreds of students ill since last week.
The students began getting sick Friday, with several going to the
school's health office complaining of nausea, stomach aches, diarrhea
and vomiting. Even more became sick over the weekend, and 450
students, or 19 percent, missed cl***** Monday.
The school's absentee rate is usually 4 percent.
"We feel pretty confident it's a viral illness," said Dr. Oxiris
Barbot, medical director of the Office of School Health. "People seem
to be sick for two to four days.
"It's unusual, and if this were June, I would have thought that this
was a pre-planned ditch day. We haven't seen anything this
concentrated in other parts of the city."
In a letter to parents and staff yesterday, Bronx Science principal
Valerie Reidy said that education officials did not find any
violations in the cafeteria and that common areas have been
"thoroughly cleansed."
She said about 90 students re****ted having symptoms since Friday, and
that was down to seven new cases yesterday. Barbot said the
investigation will continue today, with students and faculty receiving
a 14-question survey to spot trends among the sick.
"We are also going to be asking them what meals they ate at the school
and what date and what activities they participated in so we can build
a picture," she said. "We actually haven't been able to determine if
it's concentrated in a certain grade or not."
The illness affected students from freshman to seniors, many of whom
ate in the school's cafeteria.
"Everyone thinks it's the food truck," said Hazel Schaeffer, 14, a
freshman. "A lot of people eat there, and a lot of them got sick."
Chris Liu, 15, a freshman from Fresh Meadows, said, "I had ... a
fever. I just stayed in bed all day."
City officials checked with the Health Department's Bureau of
Communicable Diseases and learned of an uptick in viral cases at
hospital emergency rooms citywide.
But such upticks are not uncommon in the spring, Barbot said.
"This is the time of year when we expect viruses to start popping up,"
she said. "It's the natural cycle."
What health investigators don't know is where the virus came from and
how it spread to so many people so quickly.
Besides sending out the survey, investigators have been ****ing over
the school nurse's records. Investigators will also ask students who
saw their own doctors if any bodily fluids were taken.
At Bronx Science, despite the massive sick day Monday, some soldiered
their way to school.
"Bronx Science has a pretty tough bunch," said Abba Leffler, 18, a
senior, who said he was sick over the weekend but made it to school
Monday. "Even if they were feeling sick, they would probably come in
to take that history exam or something."
Freelance writer Brian Boyd contributed to this story.
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