Five people have died in the United States, all with underlying ailments, and an assistant school principal in New York remained hospitalized in critical condition Saturday.
The assistant principal, Mitchell Wiener, worked at one of the six schools that have been closed for a week because of the latest rash of suspected swine flu cases.
"Despite the significant disruption this causes, the Health Department has recommended closing these schools to reduce the spread of influenza," Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden said Friday. The commissioner said there are "unusually high and increasing levels" of flulike illnesses at the schools.
Health officials couldn't immediately say whether the outbreaks at the schools are connected.
Wiener's wife, Bonnie, told reporters he had been feverish and sick for nearly a week before his intermediate school shut down.
Wiener's son, Adam, said his father began "hallucinating and wasn't coherent" on Wednesday before he was rushed to a hospital.
Internationally, Malaysia, India and Turkey have reported their first cases, all involving people who had traveled from the United States. They are in addition to the 36 other countries where the World Health Organization says more than 8,000 cases of the disease have been confirmed.
Elsewhere in Asia, Japan on Saturday confirmed its first case of swine flu caught within the country, showing that the effort to block the flu at the island nation's borders had failed.
The government ordered schools closed in parts of the port city of Kobe, where the Ministry of Health said a male high school student who had not recently traveled abroad tested positive for the virus. Two other students at the same school were suspected of having the virus.
The latest confirmed case is Japan's fifth overall. The first four - three high school students and a teacher - had recently returned from a school trip to Canada.
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ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
For facts about influenza, and more information about swine flu, please visit the Health Department and CDC websites. Some specific resources:
From New York City Health Department
Facts about flu
http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/html/cd/cdinflu.shtml
From Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
General information about swine flu
http://www.cdc.gov/swineflu/general_info.htm
Swine Flu Case Definitions
http://www.cdc.gov/swineflu/casedef_swineflu.htm
Swine Flu Infection Control and Patient Care
http://www.cdc.gov/swineflu/guidelines_infection_control.htm
Preventing the Flu
http://www.cdc.gov/flu/protect/habits.htm
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