Nurse kicks tweeders' asses in Courier poll

From the Queens Courier:

More than 3,000 readers cast their vote online for The Courier Person of the Year, and St. Francis Preparatory School nurse Mary Pappas emerged as the winner, receiving nearly 67 percent of the votes cast.

Pappas was thrust into the national and even international spotlight last April when she spotted what turned out to be the first swine flu, or H1N1, case in New York at the Fresh Meadows school.

Pappas beat out Jorge Munoz, a CNN Heroes Award finalist who cooks and brings meals to day laborers in Jackson Height; Rachel Guzy, the quick-thinking hero camp counselor who saved kids when a bus went spiraling out of control; Michael Bloomberg, who won a third term as Mayor of New York City; and John Liu, the first Asian-American elected to citywide office as City Comptroller.

Attention SFP Terriers!

If you are a current student at SFP or a parent of a student and would like to be interviewed for a NYC-based national daytime TV show about the swine flu, please write to me at QueensCrapper@gmail.com and I will send you the details.

Thanks.

It's official. Prep has the swine flu.

Swine Flu Confirmed at St. Francis Prep

(MyFoxNY.com/ AP) - Mayor Bloomberg says that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has confirmed that students at St. Francis Prep were infected with swine flu.

New York officials previously had said they were eight "probable" cases, but tests later confirmed that it was indeed swine flu.

Bloomberg stressed that the cases were mild and many are recovering.

The city is awaiting the tests of additional samples to see if more St. Francis Preparatory School students were infected.

About 100 students complained of flu-like symptoms at the school.

Some students went to Cancun on a spring break trip two weeks ago.

DOH Commissioner says swine flu outbreak "probable"

Swine flu at St. Francis Prep?

NEW YORK (AP) -- New York City health officials say that about 75 students at a Queens high school have fallen ill with flu-like symptoms and testing is under way to rule out the strain of swine flu that has killed dozens in Mexico.

The Health Department's Dr. Don Weiss said Friday that a team of agency doctors and investigators were dispatched to the private St. Francis Preparatory School the previous day after students reported fever, sore throat, cough, aches and pains. No one has been hospitalized.

The handful of sick students who remained at the school were tested for a variety of flu strains. If they're found to have a known human strain that would rule out swine flu.

Results could take several days. In the meantime, the school says it's postponing an evening event and sanitizing the building over the weekend.