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One case of Type A flu on UWG campus
by Laura Camper/Times-Georgian28 mins 14 secs ago
The University of West Georgia Health Services on Friday diagnosed one case of Type A influenza after a student complained of flu-like symptoms.
The school said late Friday that it was referring to the diagnosis as Influenza A, and not H1N1.
Another student was diagnosed with seasonal flu. Both students were still on campus Friday afternoon and the university was working out arrangements with them and their roommates.
?They?re started on the Tamiflu,? said UWG Chief of Police Tom Mackel. ?They?ll either be in their rooms or they?ll go on home, but they?re being restricted to the rooms so as not to spread it.?
Students are advised to report to Health Services if they are ill, but they will not be screened for Type A flu unless they met the screening criteria set forth by the Centers for Disease Control. According to Dr. Leslie Cottrell, director of UWG Health Services, students who are ill with flu-like symptoms ? fever, dry cough and body aches ? will be tested for Type A influenza only if they have a fever of 102 or higher.
?H1N1 is a Type A influenza which can be determined by a nasal swab test,? Cottrell had written in an e-mail before Friday?s case surfaced. ?The Center for Disease Control (CDC) is no longer confirming Type A swabs as Swine flu or not. SO, the assumption is that Type A=Swine flu.?
As a number of the state?s universities have dealt with outbreaks of the virus, UWG has been working on its contingency plan in case of an outbreak.
It was making plans for a mass immunization as soon as the vaccine becomes available.
?The School of Nursing is actually working with us to create the overall immediate plan of how we?re going to do the mass inoculation,? said Mackel. ?So, using basically our own resources between Health Services and our School of Nursing, we?ll be providing the vaccine when it becomes available to all of our faculty, staff and students and the dependents of our faculty and staff.?
UWG started working on a pandemic plan three years ago. After Sept. 11, 2001, it started working on a mass-inoculation plan in case of a terrorist attack using small pox and has meshed the two plans together to create its H1N1 plan. It?s just a piece of the county plan to deal with the virus. The school will be handling the vaccines for everyone connected to the university. There will be other sites in the county that will provide the vaccination to the rest of the population.
As a population center, the university is at risk of being affected by the virus in some way.
The campus is notifying students, faculty and staff by e-mail and mass mailing of what to do in case they get sick and also ways to keep from getting the flu, he said. There will also be posters displayed around campus as well as brochures in public areas.
People suffering from flu-like symptoms should stay home rather than risk spreading their illness. In addition, students with a temperature of 102 are being instructed to go to Health Services for screening.
?If students, faculty or staff are diagnosed with Type A influenza, the CDC recommends social distancing which means no contact with others until there is no fever present for 24 hours,? Cottrell wrote in an e-mail. ?If a student diagnosed with H1N1 flu lives on campus in a residence hall, they should contact their Resident Advisor for instructions concerning alternate living quarters.?
Depending on the severity of the illness students may be asked to go home or to Tanner Medical Center, since Health Services on campus is not a 24-hour facility, Mackel said.
West Georgia Technical College is taking extra precautions because of the virus.
?We are currently installing alcohol gel sanitizing units at the doors of every lab, classroom and restroom in the college,? said Dawn Cook, vice president of Institutional Advancement. ?That?s about 500 units all total. We are also providing sanitizing wipe units in all the classrooms so that students have an option to wipe down their desks and clean their work stations before use.?
The maintenance staff is also doing extra cleaning including spraying down keyboards and other high-use surfaces with disinfectant.
While the H1N1 flu has been widely publicized since it was first diagnosed in the United States, most instances have been minor. However, Mackel believes people should be concerned. Other pandemics have started with mild cases that then became major. This may not, but there is always that possibility with a fast-spreading disease.
?I think it is because people just assumed it was going to be this killer disease,? he said. ?People need to be concerned. They don?t need to be scared. There?s a lot of things that people can do to keep the illness from spreading, but they really do need to take it serious.?
by Laura Camper/Times-Georgian28 mins 14 secs ago
The University of West Georgia Health Services on Friday diagnosed one case of Type A influenza after a student complained of flu-like symptoms.
The school said late Friday that it was referring to the diagnosis as Influenza A, and not H1N1.
Another student was diagnosed with seasonal flu. Both students were still on campus Friday afternoon and the university was working out arrangements with them and their roommates.
?They?re started on the Tamiflu,? said UWG Chief of Police Tom Mackel. ?They?ll either be in their rooms or they?ll go on home, but they?re being restricted to the rooms so as not to spread it.?
Students are advised to report to Health Services if they are ill, but they will not be screened for Type A flu unless they met the screening criteria set forth by the Centers for Disease Control. According to Dr. Leslie Cottrell, director of UWG Health Services, students who are ill with flu-like symptoms ? fever, dry cough and body aches ? will be tested for Type A influenza only if they have a fever of 102 or higher.
?H1N1 is a Type A influenza which can be determined by a nasal swab test,? Cottrell had written in an e-mail before Friday?s case surfaced. ?The Center for Disease Control (CDC) is no longer confirming Type A swabs as Swine flu or not. SO, the assumption is that Type A=Swine flu.?
As a number of the state?s universities have dealt with outbreaks of the virus, UWG has been working on its contingency plan in case of an outbreak.
It was making plans for a mass immunization as soon as the vaccine becomes available.
?The School of Nursing is actually working with us to create the overall immediate plan of how we?re going to do the mass inoculation,? said Mackel. ?So, using basically our own resources between Health Services and our School of Nursing, we?ll be providing the vaccine when it becomes available to all of our faculty, staff and students and the dependents of our faculty and staff.?
UWG started working on a pandemic plan three years ago. After Sept. 11, 2001, it started working on a mass-inoculation plan in case of a terrorist attack using small pox and has meshed the two plans together to create its H1N1 plan. It?s just a piece of the county plan to deal with the virus. The school will be handling the vaccines for everyone connected to the university. There will be other sites in the county that will provide the vaccination to the rest of the population.
As a population center, the university is at risk of being affected by the virus in some way.
The campus is notifying students, faculty and staff by e-mail and mass mailing of what to do in case they get sick and also ways to keep from getting the flu, he said. There will also be posters displayed around campus as well as brochures in public areas.
People suffering from flu-like symptoms should stay home rather than risk spreading their illness. In addition, students with a temperature of 102 are being instructed to go to Health Services for screening.
?If students, faculty or staff are diagnosed with Type A influenza, the CDC recommends social distancing which means no contact with others until there is no fever present for 24 hours,? Cottrell wrote in an e-mail. ?If a student diagnosed with H1N1 flu lives on campus in a residence hall, they should contact their Resident Advisor for instructions concerning alternate living quarters.?
Depending on the severity of the illness students may be asked to go home or to Tanner Medical Center, since Health Services on campus is not a 24-hour facility, Mackel said.
West Georgia Technical College is taking extra precautions because of the virus.
?We are currently installing alcohol gel sanitizing units at the doors of every lab, classroom and restroom in the college,? said Dawn Cook, vice president of Institutional Advancement. ?That?s about 500 units all total. We are also providing sanitizing wipe units in all the classrooms so that students have an option to wipe down their desks and clean their work stations before use.?
The maintenance staff is also doing extra cleaning including spraying down keyboards and other high-use surfaces with disinfectant.
While the H1N1 flu has been widely publicized since it was first diagnosed in the United States, most instances have been minor. However, Mackel believes people should be concerned. Other pandemics have started with mild cases that then became major. This may not, but there is always that possibility with a fast-spreading disease.
?I think it is because people just assumed it was going to be this killer disease,? he said. ?People need to be concerned. They don?t need to be scared. There?s a lot of things that people can do to keep the illness from spreading, but they really do need to take it serious.?