Two of three Lakewood students identified overnight as possible swine flu victims are in intensive care at Madigan Army Medical Center, TNT education reporter Debby Abe reports this morning after talking to Clover Park School District officials. The other student was released to recover at home.

Lakes High School was shut down as a precaution Friday as health officials determine whether the pair of possible cases develops into probable or definite cases of swine flu.

One of the sick Lakes students had been to Mexico recently, according to district spokeswoman Kim Prentice.

Two of the individuals are boys and one is a girl, Prentice said. One student is 17 years old; the spokeswoman said she didn't know the ages of the other two. All three are friends.

Prentice said she didn't know if the students were taken to Madigan because they are children of military personnel. She also said she didn't know if the students had siblings in other Lakewood schools.

Custodial staff in other schools have been instructed to do extra cleaning on stairway rails, doorknobs and other high-contact areas, as a precaution, she said.

At Lakes, John Horne's crew was busy wiping down surfaces in the cafeteria and hallways. Special attention was being paid to the classrooms where the three students took classes.

Clover Park was notified at 12:30 a.m. Friday when the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department called to say Madigan was treating three students with flu-like symptoms who were undergoing further tests to see if they were infected with the swine flu virus.

The health department advised a one-day closure, and parents and staff received phone calls about 5:15 a.m.

Lakes Athletic Director Joe Keller said all sports have been canceled and will be rescheduled.

A decision about whether to close the school for a longer period, as districts in Snohomish and King counties have already done, won't be made until more conclusive testing comes back from a state laboratory. Prentice said the testing won't be complete until later today or Saturday.

At a news conference this morning, local Health Department Director Dr. Anthony Chen said that officials only know at this point that the students had contracted an Influenza A virus. Swine flu is part of that larger virus family. Local testing can only determine that the students possibly have swine flu.

"We're taking an abundance of caution here," Chen said.

In the school districts north of Pierce County, officials have already classified their cases as "probable" because state testing is more conclusive. A final round of testing is done by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control.

Lakewood City Manager Andrew Neiditz learned about the Lakes closure
via a 5 a.m. phone call today from the health department. He said it's his understanding that if the three students are found to be carriers of swine flu, the health department would recommend the high school be closed seven days.

Prentice said Clover Park will do what the health department advises.

Word of the Lakes incident got around early Friday. Pierce County Executive Pat McCarthy took the unusual step of mentioning it to a crowd of 1,300 people at the Pierce County Prayer Breakfast.

During welcoming remarks at the Tacoma Dome Exhibition Hall, McCarthy said Pierce County government and health-care providers are “ready to deal with any kind of crisis we may have.”

“You’re in good hands,” McCarthy said. “We have people ready and able to really deal with any problems that may occur from this virus.

“I wanted you to know that and feel confident in that,” McCarthy told the crowd.
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News Tribune staff reporters Debby Abe, Steve Maynard and Brent Champaco contributed to this report.