It appeared to be quieting down in the interim –from the outbreak of the first few cases in Mexico, the U.S., and Australia till now.   Swine flu is roaring back and it seems to be getting closer to home.  According to the Marmot, SBS News has reported that six English teachers in Korea may have come down with swine flu, also known as Novel influenza A (H1N1).  

via Marmot:

“The English teachers in question, recruited by a hagwon in Seoul, are believed to have been infected while they were undergoing training from May 18 to 22, acting as a team and living in the same place. Another seven teachers with high fevers and runny noses are undergoing tests.”

If the cases are confirmed, this brings the total caseload to 21 individuals, which includes the 10 reported by May 24.  

The surprising detail emerging from this new case, according to Brian in Jeollanamdo, is that the six teachers were part of a larger training group of over 30 teacher trainees from Canada, Australia, and the U.S.   

Their possible exposure to the flu is linked to the fifth reported case in Korea, a 23-year old American woman who was diagnosed on May 23rd.  She was part of the same training group, shared living quarters, and attended the same training sessions.   

After enduring what more than one teacher characterized as a ”hellish week” of training, the teachers were rounded up from as far away as Busan by public health officials and brought to a quarantine location in Seocho-dong, Seoul. 

So far we’ve found two sources inside, and they are documenting the unfolding situation in this blog and that blog. 

While mostly upbeat (some prefer this ‘forced vacation’ over their previous training week), there is also a hint of underlying tension against their detention and equally as much resentment toward their hagwon for running such an exhaustive training suitable for illness.  Like kids at camp, they have already sneaked Burger King, have begun hoarding snacks and booze for a party, and are waiting things out as best they can.

Here’s an excerpt:

“I have uh, some bad news for you.  It seems at training, last week someone in your group is now positive for swine flu.  So we must take you now, to hotel for tests.  Ambulance is on the way.”

We’re in an ambulance, weaving it’s way back toward Seoul.  Twenty minutes before two serious looking health workers picked us up in Bundang, promptly handed us N95 masks, then motioned for us to get into the ambulance waiting there.  A small group of Koreans stopped their saturday afternoon stroll to watch the scene: two Americans being escorted into an ambulance not ten feet away from them.  I felt sorry for them, knowing that some of them would probably be retracing their entire day, hypothesizing if they ever came into contact with something these two dirty foreigners had touched.  I had visions of men in business suits washing themselves thoroughly from head to toe as if scrubbing our very existence off their skin.”

Should the cases begin to climb, the prospect of school closings similar to what was seen in the New York City schools would not be out of the government’s imagination.    

News media and parents are beginning to notice that the total suspected cases of swine flu in Korea are disproportionately foreign and composed of teachers, which makes for a powder keg of an issue.  

With news of the death of an assistant principal in New York City last week, those working at hagwons are finding themselves uncomfortably close to the front lines of a threatening strain of the flu.   And there is no indication yet what the consequence might be to the private academy business as parents consider pulling their children out of hagwon. 

Luckily, though, there is some good news.  A South Korean researcher claims to have developed the world’s first H1N1 vaccine.

…

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