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OSU:Official: 84 cases of flu on campus

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  • OSU:Official: 84 cases of flu on campus

    Official: 84 cases of flu on campus

    OSU officials take steps to protect students, faculty

    Chris Day

    Eighty-four cases and counting.

    Slightly more than three weeks ago, the H1N1 flu, commonly called swine flu, arrived at Oklahoma State University. It started with three cases on Aug. 6. As of Thursday, 84 students have been diagnosed with flu, University Health Services Director Steve Rogers said.

    The cases have been mild and usually last three to five days. No student has been seriously ill, Rogers said. The students have all recovered without being hospitalized.

    The symptoms are high fever, aches, a cough, sometimes a sore throat and generally feeling very bad, he said.

    Oklahoma State has initiated programs to protect students and minimize the flu outbreak. The campus health center is using various methods to keep students informed, and urging them to wash their hands often and avoid sick fellow students. It has also registered to be a mass distribution site for the H1N1 flu vaccine when it becomes available. The university also has stepped up cleaning efforts.

    State epidemiologist Dr. Kristy Bradley predicts H1N1 will return this fall, and estimates the virus could cause symptoms in up to 120 million people and cause as many as 90,000 deaths in the United States. ?This is a serious situation potentially. It?s such a new strain of the flu that everyone is considered susceptible.?

    Rogers answers NewsPress questions about the flu outbreak.



    Has there been any investigation as to how the H1N1 (swine) flu got on campus?

    Nobody is really investigating where it came from. Flu was throughout the United States all summer long. There were cases in Oklahoma. The virus knows no boundaries. Within the first week, we had cases that didn?t have anything to do with sorority rush. We had been expecting it.



    Is there anything that can be done to help minimize the transmission of the flu?

    The typical illnesses that are seen in any community will always go through a university community easily because of the close proximity of students when they study. Their living arrangements -- whether they are on- or off-campus -- are always close-quartered. We traditionally in the fall see viral outbreaks with vague symptoms. OSU is experiencing one of those now in addition to the flu.

    The University Health Services Center is providing information on ways students can protect themselves and minimize their exposure to an illness.



    What affect will the delay in distribution of the H1NI vaccine have on OSU?

    It?s going to be interesting. First, the CDC will be releasing vaccine in gradual amounts with mid- to late October the earliest anticipated receipt date. Individuals with the highest risk will get that vaccine. It will come 8- to 12-weeks after H1N1 appeared on campus which is about the length of time we expect the pandemic to last. It could be the vaccine is coming at the tail end of this round of the illness. However, the flu virus is expected to return. Look at last spring, we had a small number of cases. It went to a low level during the summer and now its picking up again. We are certainly going to see higher numbers this fall than last spring. It could potentially come back a third time. The challenge for public health officials is convincing people to get the H1N1 vaccine if they seem to think the disease risk is passed. OSU will urge all students to get the vaccine when it becomes available. OSU has registered and requested to be a vaccination site, and has started the initial planning. When more vaccine becomes available we will be looking at the logistics of a mass immunization program. OSU is talking to the Payne County Health Department and state Health Department on the best way to prepare to do a large number of vaccinations.



    What about seasonal flu vaccinations?

    They should get the seasonal vaccine as well. We always provide flu vaccine to students free as long as it?s available. We will be moving that up this year. It will begin in the first week of October. The exact date and time will be announced. It?s being moved up to avoid a potential conflict with OSU giving the H1N1 vaccine. We will focus in early October on seasonal vaccinations and as the H1N1 vaccine becomes available start devoting our resources to that.



    How has the student reaction been to the H1N1 outbreak here?

    We are seeing a lot of students coming in with some of the symptoms of H1N1, but its not H1N1. It?s not influenza. It?s this other fall, first of the semester virus that goes around every year. They may have a cough and some allergy symptoms. There may be a heightened awareness because of the H1N1 information that?s available. I haven?t seen any extreme over-reaction by the students. Everybody?s been very cooperative with no disruption to the normal business of the university which is providing a top-rated education to the students.



    What are you doing to protect the students?

    We want to inform and educate. We want our students, faculty and staff ? the university community ? to understand what this illness is. We want them to understand how to protect themselves and how to prevent spreading it to someone else. We are regularly providing in various different ways information to the university on those topics. OSU has increased its surface cleaning efforts across campus. There?s just not enough time, people or sanitizer to wipe down a university five or six times a day. Individuals need to focus on protecting themselves and follow the prevention advice instead of being passive and hoping someone else will protect them. This is going to take a community effort whether it?s at Oklahoma State University, the city of Stillwater, the state of Oklahoma or nationally for this pandemic to be controlled. The most important thing is if you?re ill stay home and if you?re not ill take steps to protect yourself.



    What are your other concerns?

    Academic continuity. After all, we are here to provide an education to 20,000 students who have life plans and getting a college degree is an important part of that. So we are working with faculty, staff and administration across the campus to make sure we keep our focus on academic continuity. We?ve developed an electronic class excuse to make it easier for students to communicate to faculty members their instructions to stay out of circulation until they are well. There shouldn?t be a significant impact on academic continuity because the illness is short-lived ? three to five days. Timing couldn?t have been better. If we had to choose a time for this to occur, early in the fall semester there?s not many large assignments. We are going to have some students who have to do some makeup. We are hoping with open communication with faculty, we can work through these issues.



    With 84 cases on campus, are Stillwater residents at higher risk?

    There?s no reason to think the OSU campus is any harder hit than any other place in the state. We are just a little more concentrated. There?s no more risk for Stillwater than any other community in the state. Our students live throughout the community. The transmission of the disease isn?t by buildings. It?s more by person-to-person contact. Our students have contact with nonstudents. If it hasn?t already begun, we will see H1N1 in communities throughout the state.



    What factors would figure into closing the university because of an H1N1 outbreak?

    There are some important lessons learned last spring when this first began. Across the country there were some individual school systems and colleges that decided to close. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention responded quickly. The CDC has clearly suggested school, college or university officials discuss the true impact of a closure with state and local health officials and governing boards. If a school were to close for a week or two weeks, the likelihood of influenza re-occurring would still be there because it is still in the community. For a closure to be effective, it would have to be a closure for as long as the virus is in a state or a region. If OSU were to close and send the students home as soon as the students come back they would bring the virus back with them. Closure is a last ditch effort to protect the public against a disease that might have an extremely high death rate. In this case, we are not seeing that.

    http://www.stillwater-newspress.com/...241222521.html
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