School closes as over third of students contract swine flu

Authorities have closed a secondary school in the West Bohemian town of Cheb where more than a third of the students are suspected to have come down with the H1N1 swine flu virus. Random testing among the school’s 730 pupils confirmed the virus in three of them. Up to 270 students show symptoms, however. The region is one of those with the highest incidence of swine flu cases in the Czech Republic. In related news, a 31-year-old leukaemia patient infected with the H1N1 swine flu virus died in hospital in Prague on Thursday. According to a hospital spokeswoman, the patient was already in critical condition and that the flu played no role in her succumbing to cancer.