SA Indian school shut over swine flu

A private school in South Africa started by the Hindu community has been shut down for a week amid after two students reported positive for swine flu.

The Shree Bharat Sharda Mandir (SBSM) School in the sprawling, mainly Indian township of Lenasia, about 35 km south of Johannesburg, was shut after a parent told the school authorities that two of his children were suffering from the H1N1 virus.

Even as 75 more pupils remained absent from school with flu symptoms, city of Johannesburg health officials were called in. They are expected to revisit the school early next week to reassess the situation.

Although the two pupils identified positively have not travelled abroad recently, several other SBSM pupils with flu had visited India and other foreign countries during the vacation that ended a fortnight ago, prompting concerns that they might have brought the virus which has led to a scare in many parts of the world.

Swine flu has already claimed three lives in South Africa.

"We actually returned home yesterday (Friday), earlier than scheduled, from a visit to Mumbai after we got scared there as schools and cinemas shut down," said Magan Daya, who has a niece at the school. She was not in India with them and does not have flu.

"All the parents of SBSM are very concerned after we shared with them the experience of cinemas, schools and other places in Mumbai being shut down due to the risk of infection in public places."

SBSM principal Cyril Samuel appealed to all children who had been overseas recently to subject themselves to tests for the virus.

The city health department, which provided masks for all the pupils and teachers, said the region had almost 100 confirmed cases of swine flu.

But health department spokesman Nkosinathi Nkabinde added in a statement that there was no cause for alarm as the majority of the swine flu cases were mild and no different from the seasonal flu that has hit thousands of people during the current bitterly cold winter.