Big Ten schools fight to control H1N1 cases

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By: Avani Chhaya on 2009-10-09
www.dailyillini.com

As the first drops of novel H1N1 vaccine arrive in Illinois this week, Big Ten schools in other states are still striving to manage the outbreak of the virus.

Universities across the conference are offering safety kits and informational guidelines, cautioning students to stay home, wash hands, cover coughs and sneezes and get plenty of rest.

“Basically, what we’re doing is the common sense type of control that people do — stay hydrated, get plenty of rest, cough into your sleeves not your hands and wash your hands frequently,” said Susan Williams, spokeswoman at Indiana University.

Tom Moore, interim University of Iowa spokesman, said the number of novel H1N1, or swine flu, cases on campus is largely an estimate because the school is not testing to see if the cases of flu are H1N1.

“The general feeling is that we have 300 cases of influenza-like illnesses. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) doesn’t consider cases of influenza-like illness to be a reportable illness. We are dealing with estimates,” Moore said.

Moore said he does not know where the University of Iowa stands in comparison with other universities on the rate of swine flu cases.

As for the University, the total number of confirmed swine flu cases as of Oct. 6 is 781, said David Lawrance, medical director at McKinley Health Center, in an e-mail.

Kathy Edgren, director of health promotion and community relations at the University of Michigan, explained that the school had enacted an entire campaign to help cover coughs and wash hands all over campus.

The poster proposal depicts the “green hat guy” saying “getting sick sucks, coughs and sneezes spreads diseases,” Edgren said.

Michigan also offers kits in community centers, as well as prepared paper bags with a mask, thermometer and an informational sheet to tackle the effects of swine flu, she added.

Edgren said her mission is to get the message out to people in residence halls, fraternities, sororities and apartments.

“We’re getting ready to send a news release in anticipation of the H1N1 vaccine on campus,” Williams said.

Indiana is planning on sending that information out as soon as possible, she added.

Limiting the contact of the influenza virus helps prevent the spread of the disease to other students.

Being one of the eight universities in the country which conducts test trials of H1N1 , Iowa has suspended the requirement for students to receive a note from a physician to limit the exposure of the illness to others, Moore said.

He added that students with swine flu should download a report form and send it to their professors rather than travel across campus and possibly spread the disease.

“They seemed to be going down some. (Swine flu cases) seems to have peaked,” Edgren said. “At least this wave of it has, but we don’t know what’s going to happen down the road.”

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