Diagnosis clears ‘flu’ student in Lynn

LYNN – A Breed Middle School student who was tested for swine flu late last week has been medically cleared, Superintendent Catherine Latham said Tuesday.Latham learned of the test results from Health Director Maryanne O’Connor Monday, confirming what both the school and health departments had already suspected – that symptoms were caused by the traditional, seasonal flu.”It is not a confirmed case,” Latham said. “I got a call from Maryanne O’Connor and she said the student has not been confirmed as having swine flu.”Fears first surfaced that a student may have come down with the new strain of influenza when she became sick and displayed flu-like symptoms Thursday.Despite not showing most traits of swine flu, such as a quick onset, and not having the travel history of other confirmed cases, doctors chose to test the student anyway as a precaution and informed school officials at Breed.Parents were notified of the test Friday afternoon.The test, combined with a heightened sense of paranoia, sparked rumors around Breed and other schools that individual students had been afflicted with the virus and that schools may be locked down, but those rumors were unfounded.Both O’Connor and Latham said that closing down schools was not an option and was not required by the board of health, especially with the student being such a low-risk test case.There have been more than 600 confirmed swine flu cases in the United States as of Tuesday evening, but only two of those cases have proven fatal, the first a 23-month-old Mexican toddler living in Texas and the latest a 33-year-old Texas school teacher who had recently given birth to a healthy baby.As a result of student cases, as many as 300 schools have been closed nationwide and two states, Texas and Alabama, have indefinitely postponed all high school sporting events.In Massachusetts, the number of confirmed cases rose from two last weekend to 34, with all patients reportedly on the road to recovery.Latham said she is scheduled to attend an informative public safety meeting with the Lynn Police Thursday and that swine flu is an expected topic of conversation.