grippeA

Cases of swine flu –known locally as grippe A– have appeared in Paris. As in New York, they’re centered on schools.

Last Friday, one elementary school student (in CM2, equivalent to fifth grade) at the Ecole de la place du Cardinal Amette fell ill with swine flu. On Sunday, six more swine flu cases were declared, at the same school. On Tuesday, 17 new cases were declared, including one at an adjacent elementary school, Ecole Dupleix.

Despite 24 cases declared in less than a week, the authorities have been reassuring and trying to minimize the situation. The school has been temporarily closed (the school year ends next week).

What strikes me the most is the insistence with which the authorities repeat that the class where the first student fell ill had just returned from a school trip in the United Kingdom; this foreign origin of the virus is emphasized at every occasion.

[ADDENDUM: As of 25 June, three additional swine flu cases were declared among students at an elementary school in Creteil, a Paris suburb. A middle school student from Châtillon (another Paris suburb) was hospitalized with swine flu shortly after his return from a class trip to Canada.]