Swine flu emerges at high schools in York, James City

There have been no new cases of swine-flu-related illness at Bon Air Juvenile Correctional Center in Chesterfield County, but cases of the virus continue to increase across the state.

On the Peninsula, health and school officials say a male student at Grafton High School in York County and a male student at Jamestown High School in James City County have the virus and are recovering at home.

A spokeswoman for York schools, Betsy Overkamp-Smith, said the Grafton student has been out of school this week, recuperating at home.

A letter to parents from Jamestown Principal Charles A. Wagner said his school's affected student had "traveled to a large urban city with widespread illness." The student is at home recovering and has not been at school this week, according to the letter.

Since the Virginia Department of Health updated its count of 29 cases of H1N1 swine flu last Friday, at least a half-dozen more cases have been confirmed and reported in the news media. The state is updating its official case count on Fridays.

"We don't think that's all of the cases," said Dr. Jim Burns, Virginia deputy health commissioner for public health.

"The testing we are doing is very selective. It's for public-health surveillance purposes, not for diagnostic purposes. We think that pretty much the only flu strain circulating in Virginia is what we call the novel H1N1. . . . We know there are many more cases than the 29."

Three cases were confirmed in residents at the Bon Air center, a state-run facility that has a youth population of 175.

"There has been no additional spread," Bruce Twyman, spokesman for the Virginia Department of Juvenile Justice, said yesterday. The first case of illness there showed up last week, and more began showing symptoms last weekend. To manage the outbreak, about 13 residents were isolated; some staff and residents were treated with the antiviral drug Tamiflu; and the center temporarily halted nonessential visitors.

There also have been at least three confirmed cases at Southeastern Virginia Training Center, a state-operated facility for people with mental retardation and developmental disabilities in Chesapeake. One of those residents, an adult woman, died in a hospital Tuesday.

Burns said it's too early to tell whether the cases at Bon Air were the result of one sick person infecting others at once or whether there was sustained transmission causing waves of secondary infections.

"We are a little surprised this virus is lingering into the summer," Burns said.