Results tagged “swineflue”

Just a few more days until the return to school comes for students across the city as medical experts anxiously await just how badly swine flu might affect the upcoming academic year. Already at Cornell University in Ithaca, 140 students have come down with flu-like illnesses in the two weeks since school has reconvened.

The NYPD has lost its first officer to swine flu after a Brooklyn cop died following a seven-week fight with the virus. 27-year-old Officer Ryan Johnson of Brookhaven on Long Island died yesterday after weeks in a coma following his diagnosis on June 17th. He was a five-year veteran of the force out of the 83rd precinct in Bushwick. There is some debate as to whether a preexisting condition exacerbated the H1N1 virus—health officials said that Johnson had long suffered from asthma, but his mother denied that. Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said that Johnson "fought valiantly over many weeks, often expressing his desire to return to the job." As of the Health Department's most recent report a month ago, the swine flu death toll in New York City was at 47.