Swine flu cases close Heights school until May 26 12 swine flu cases confirmed at Travis Elem.

J. Ripkowski picks up her great-grandchild Sasha Gonzales, 12, as he leaves Travis Elementary for the day due to high fever on Friday. J. Ripkowski picks up her great-grandchild Sasha Gonzales, 12, as he leaves Travis Elementary for the day due to high fever on Friday. Photo: Mayra Beltran, Chronicle Photo: Mayra Beltran, Chronicle Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Swine flu cases close Heights school until May 26 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

Swine flu forced the closure Friday of a Houston elementary school where 12 students have been confirmed to have the virus, the state’s largest outbreak in a single location.

Houston Independent School District administrators early Friday afternoon made the decision to close Travis Elementary School until May 26, hours after learning swine flu was one cause of the rampant illness that began spreading Wednesday.

Nearly 400 students stayed home Friday, many because they were ill and others because their parents didn’t want them exposed.

“The most prudent thing to do was just to close the school,” said HISD spokesman Norm Uhl.

Kathy Barton, spokeswoman for the city’s health department, said she expects more of the Travis students will test positive for the virus, whose outbreak in Mexico caused considerable U.S. concern a few weeks ago but more recently seemed to be on the wane in Houston.

Barton said health officials will never know exactly how many Travis students had swine flu; many won’t see a doctor, and some doctors will treat cases based on symptoms without taking a specimen to send to the city’s laboratory.

The Heights-area school has 712 students.

Friday’s 12 positive tests came from the first 13 samples sent to the lab.

Barton said she expects other viruses were also a cause of some of the illnesses at Travis. She said she wouldn’t characterize all the illnesses as being swine flu.

“It’s too early to draw any conclusions about what might have occurred at Travis to cause this explosion of infection,” Barton said. “We will be looking for the answer to that.”

Initially skeptical

Houston health officials first learned of the possible outbreak early Wednesday evening when Travis administrators told them 86 students, mostly third-graders, and some staff had stayed or been sent home with illnesses. Symptoms included fever and stomachaches.

By Thursday, the number of absent students had grown to 242, though a significant number weren’t sick, just worried about catching what was going around.

Because the symptoms were wide-ranging and spread so quickly without a clear originating case, school and health officials were initially skeptical it was swine flu.

At least one Travis parent was unhappy a decision came only after swine flu tests came back positive Friday. Angela Casillas, whose daughter is sick, said she thinks officials waited too long to shut the school.

“I leave my daughter in their care, and I believed they provided the best possible care that a school can give,” Casillas said. “Now, this situation makes me question that.”

Earlier in the outbreak, following U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommendations, schools were closing at the likelihood of a single swine flu case, a policy that left about half a million Texas schoolchildren at home early last week.

On May 5, the CDC reversed course and said schools no longer needed to close because the illness caused by the virus was no more severe than seasonal flu.

The CDC said schools could close if an outbreak occurred, but for isolated cases the agency recommended students and staff with flu-like symptoms stay home for at least seven days.

3 days to finish testing

Barton said the health department has ruled out food poisoning as a cause of the illness, but she said seasonal flu and stomach bugs could be a factor.

She said the decision to close the school was HISD’s, not the city’s.

Two staff members have called in sick, HISD officials said. Two others missed work with sick children of their own.

The school year is slated to end May 28, but Uhl said he doesn’t expect those students to have to make up lost time. Students will finish any remaining state tests in the final three days of the year, he said.

Friday afternoon, Travis students were taking the news in stride.

“I’m still being cautious,” said Zoe Vastakis, a fourth-grade student who was taken home by her mother on Friday before HISD decided to close the school. “I’m eating the right foods, trying to wash my hands a lot.”

The 12 swine flu cases brought the city of Houston’s total to 35. The state has had 568 cases, including three deaths, the latest a 33-year-old Corpus Christi man who died May 6.

todd.ackerman@chron.com

jennifer.radcliffe@chron.com