Here in Western New York the number of confirmed cases of Swine Flu continues to rise. The Erie County Health Department says the county now has 100 cases. This has caused several schools to close and now another school in the county has shut its doors.
Oracle Charter School on Delaware Avenue in Buffalo decided to close on Wednesday for three days, until Monday, after several people there are being tested for Swine Flu. The school has a total of 320 students. "We do have students and staff who we've referred to their health care providers and have gone to see their doctors and are being tested for Swine Flu," Julie Jackson-Forsberg, the principal at Oracle Charter, said. "We had a number of suspected cases of Swine Flu and a spreading of flu symptoms and we decided to take a proactive stance and close the school to stop the person to person transmission... and students to be ready to take their exams next week."
This latest school closure happening a day before the World Health Organization declared a Swine Flu pandemic on Thursday. It's the first global flu epidemic in 41 years, as the number of Swine Flu infections continues to climb.
The Erie County Health Department says this pandemic is based on the spreading of the flu and not the severity of it, especially here at home. "Those are the two things we need to look at, how many people have it and how sick are they," Health Department Commissioner Dr. Anthony Billittier said. "A lot of people have Swine Flu and a lot more will get it most likely in Erie County. The good news... those people are only mildly or moderately affected and hopefully it will stay that way, that's our goal. We need to take significant actions but we need to take appropriate actions and not do things that sound good."
Oracle Charter is the third school to close in Erie County because of Swine Flu. The other two schools are Riverside High School in Buffalo which closed for two days earlier this month. And Buffalo United Charter School which closed Wednesday for cleaning and is now open again. The County Health Department says both these schools had three confirmed cases of Swine Flu.
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