LAUREL, Md. - Maryland health officials say the state now has 15 probable cases of swine flu. There still have been no confirmed cases in the state.

Of the four new probable cases announced Saturday, one involves a teacher at University Park Elementary School in Hyattsville. That school will be closed for 14 days beginning Monday, becoming the fifth school in Maryland to be closed because of the virus. It is believed the teacher may have come to work for several days while sick.

The other new cases involve two Anne Arundel County residents and one Harford County resident. All are recovering at home. No one has been hospitalized due to swine flu in Maryland.

The first possible swine flu case is in Prince George's County and, as in several other Maryland cases, is a schoolchild: an 8-year-old at Montpelier Elementary in Laurel is believed to have the highly contagious H1N1 virus.

All 600 students at Montpelier, as well as all faculty and staff, were told to stay home as the school is thoroughly disinfected.

The CDC (web | news) is testing samples now to confirm the cases reported in Maryland, and the final results are not back yet. But the state is taking no chances: Folger McKinsey Elementary in Severna Park and Milford Mill Academy in Baltimore County are also temporarily closed on the order of the governor.

Both schools had initially remained open, though each had a student preliminarily diagnosed with swine flu. On Friday, however, Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley declared a public health emergency and ordered the closing of Folger McKinsey and Milford Mill.

The governor's office released a statement explaining that for the duration of the state will close any public or private school and cease all extracurricular activities for up to 14 days in the event a student is deemed "probable" for the H1N1 influenza virus.

"I have declared this public health emergency with new guidance from our federal partners and based on an abundance of caution and concern for our students in Maryland," said Gov. O'Malley. "If there is a probable case of H1N1 virus at any school, we will close that school and cease all extra-curricular activities for up to 14 days."

The 14 day window is in accordance with CDC guidelines suggesting that children remain contagious for about seven to ten days after the onset of the illness. The 8-year-old student at Montpelier believed to have the flu last attended school on Wednesday.

None of the reported cases of possible swine flu in Maryland have resulted in hospitalizations, and all those affected are recovering.
"Everybody was talking about, if I catch it, then, some people said we might die or something," said Montpelier student Cara Davis.

"This thing is throwing me for a loop. I never thought it would hit this close to home," added parent Carole Jones.

With spring events like prom and graduation upcoming, some students are lamenting the school cancellations. "I guess I'm glad that they're taking the proper precautions, but -- I don't know, I kind of want to go back to school now," Rockville High sophomore Danielle Smith said.

Rockville High moved its planned Saturday SAT test sessions to Wood Middle School. Smith was one of the students taking the SAT test Saturday. She said that the Rockville students took the test in classrooms in a different part of the school from the rest of the test-takers.

The SAT test was not the only event that had to accommodate Rockville's closure. "We had to reschedule the games, and all that stuff, and we had to reschedule all the festivals and stuff, and... we have the AP exams this week," explained junior Brandon Bryant.

On Monday, two AP exams are scheduled and participating students from Rockville High School will be able to take the exams at the Mark Twain School in Rockville.

One element of the Prince George's County case that worries some is that there is no evidence that the student or anyone around him has been out of the country since the start of the swine flu epidemic. The same is true for a Rockville High School student.

Dr. Fran Phillips, Maryland's deputy secretary for public health, said, "The fact that this student does not have a family member -- the student has not individually traveled to one of those affected areas indicates to us that there is community-acquired disease now."

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