News

By KAREN MATTHEWS Associated Press Writer

NEW YORK — The number of swine flu cases in Japan surged on a wave of new confirmations, prompting government-ordered school closures and cancellations of public events.

click image to enlarge

Math teacher Emelinda Mabulay places flowers in memory of her supervisor Mitchell Wiener, who was assistant principal at IS 238 Susan B. Anthony School in New York Monday, May 18, 2009. Wiener died Sunday after contracting the Swine Flu virus.

AP Photo/Craig Ruttle

Related headlines

• Second Luzerne County swine flu case is confirmed
• Swine flu confirmed in Lackawanna County

Select images available for purchase in the
Times Leader Photo Store

At least 121 people — most of them teenagers — have tested positive for the virus, health officials in the hardest hit areas said Monday. All were recovering in local hospitals or their homes.

Meanwhile, complications besides swine flu likely played a part in the death of New York City’s first fatality from the virus, a hospital spokesman said.

Mitchell Wiener, 55, a school assistant principal, died Sunday evening from swine flu. Weiner had been hospitalized and on a ventilator, Flushing Hospital Medical Center spokesman Andrew Rubin said.

Wiener had been sick with the virus for nearly a week before the Queens intermediate school where he worked was closed on Thursday.

No one else in the city has become seriously ill from the virus.

It was the sixth swine-flu related death in the U.S.; officials have also reported three in Texas, one in Washington state and one in Arizona.

Chile confirmed its first two swine flu cases Sunday in two women who arrived on a flight from the Dominican Republic. The women, ages 25 and 32, are hospitalized and in good condition, Health Minister Alvaro Erazo said.

The swine flu epidemic is expected to dominate the World Health Organization’s five-day annual meeting, which began Monday in Geneva and involves health officials from the agency’s 193 member states. Officials will examine transmission rates and hear experts’ recommendations on producing a swine flu vaccine.

As of Sunday, the virus has sickened at least 8,480 people in 40 countries, killing 75 of them, mostly in Mexico.