Swine flu is expected to make a great comeback with the beginning of the school year. “As the school year begins, I’m concerned that the H1N1 virus might disrupt learning in some schools across the country,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. According to an Aug. 24 report from the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, 20 to 40 percent of the U.S. population may be infected this year, and up to 1.8 million individuals may require hospitalization for the flu, compared to the 200,000 hospitalizations during a typical flu season.
Last year, the campus reported its first swine flu case just three days after it was discovered in Mexico. While College Physician Assistant Ed McGlynn believes it possible that swine flu could return to campus, he also said, “Because we had an outbreak on campus in the spring, our numbers could be lower … It’s called herd immunity. We may have inoculated ourselves by having an outbreak on campus.”
Nevertheless, the College is “preparing for a major outbreak,” said McGlynn, taking precautionary measures ranging from installing hand sanitizing stations in every building to preparing quarantine housing.
In addition, the College is awaiting U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) notification to begin vaccination on campus after it identified people under 25 as one of five groups that are most at risk for contracting swine flu. The College may begin vaccinating as early as the beginning of October. “The human trials haven’t been completed yet, but it is moving along,” McGlynn said. “We’ll be waiting for information week by week.”
Moreover, Resident Counselors have received additional training and information pertaining to H1N1 to help educate students on the threats and symptoms of the virus. Dean of Residential Life Torin Moore noted that one way of fighting the disease is to ensure that “everybody is alert of neighbors and friends. We need to be encouraging students to be in contact with Health Services and seen in a timely way.”
With regards to housing, Plaza and Waldorf Dormitories may be set aside for quarantined housing. According to Moore, “the rules around swine flu have changed considerably since we dealt with it in the spring in terms of the guidelines from the CDC.” Only students with swine flu who live “in multi-room configuration such as a double will be placed in isolation rooms.” Otherwise, students in singles will remain in their own rooms.
Many universities are asking faculty to be more lenient with absences. Faculty conversations regarding student absences have yet to take place but Moore commented, “I think that the message will be to use discretion” in the swine flu cases.
The Five Colleges have an agreement to help one another under trying circumstances. Moore said that there is a “distant scenario” that the College could use extra housing to help quarantine Five College students.
“In the future, there might be discussions on this issue, but there have been no formal commitments that were made,” said Director of Public Affairs Peter Rooney. “In fact, the guidance that we are giving our Five College colleagues is that they need to find room space for their sick students. What we will be focusing on first are our own students.”
Though there is no way to tell how swine flu will impact the campus, the College hopes that these precautions and measures will help reduce the spread of the flu. Last spring, the College practiced “social distancing” when it canceled all social events the first weekend of May, which encouraged students to remain six feet from those coughing. But because the CDC has changed restrictions, the College will consider the scale of H1N1 infections on campus before making any similar decisions.
Avoiding swine flu will be a nationwide challenge for businesses, institutions and the general public. The Health Center encourages small self-care measures such as hand washing, which can help prevent individuals from contracting H1N1. Once an individual falls ill, it is best to go to the Health Center quickly, rest and avoid contact with others. Rooney hopes that students will fill out the family contact form from Dean of Students Ben Lieber’s recent e-mail and update their communication preferences to enable efficient communication on H1N1 within the Amherst community. More information about swine flu is available at: www.amherst.edu/campuslife/health/service/flu.