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FHSU H1N1 Preparations
HAYS, KAN.
(hppr) -
College life can lend itself to shared illnesses. Tight quarters, communal dining halls and bathrooms, as well as parties put students at risk for sharing germs, including the novel H1N1 virus, better known as swine flu. At the beginning of the school year the University of Kansas made the news when the number of students with flu-like symptoms climbed to over 300, which is roughly one percent of the population. The last report on the KU website, from late September, listed 60 cases. In our listening area, Fort Hays State University in Hays, Kansas, has not had a large uptick in flu cases so far. It has a student population of about 10,000.
We've just had five confirmed, but I think we've had more than that that are unconfirmed, so we haven't had many go to the hospital for overnight hospitalization, but if we do it's because they're dehydrated. The hospital tells us that most people that come in that have been confirmed statewide it's because they are dehydrated, people aren't getting enough fluids.
That's Dona Koenigfman, the Director of Student Health at FHSU. The school wants students to report flu cases and to go home when they're sick, but it's not required. For some students that's just not an option, like the international population or those far from home. Koenigfman doesn't think there's been an issue so far with underreporting.
I haven't heard from professors or anybody that they're seeing a lot of sick kids in class and that they feel like there's a problem with it, so I don't know that that's happening here. But we have heard that about other campuses that some of the kids aren't reporting because they don't want to be sent home, they feel like it's getting close to midterms and they can't miss school and they feel like they have to go, so they're just not reporting themselves ill.
The first wave of the H1N1 vaccine has been sent to states, but Koenigfman is unsure when the university will see its first doses. They're working with the health department, the local public schools, and the hospital to plan vaccinations and to make sure they aren't giving separate clinics. There have been delays in seasonal flu vaccines, so there's a possibility of combined clinics.
So I think we're all trying to hope for some of the seasonal vaccine to come in in conjunction with the H1N1 where we can do a clinic at the same time and give both vaccines. We all know that would be perfect, we're not sure that's going to happen and there are several different factors with construction at the hospital and things playing into what's going to happen.
Overall the emphasis at FHSU has been on education, like how to tell symptoms apart from a cold and the flu and the same advice we've all been hearing about washing our hands frequently and maintaining personal space. The student health center is taking some extra precautions to prevent spread to other students.
If anybody comes in with any kind of upper respiratory symptoms, sneezing, coughing, runny nose, anything like that we ask them to put on a mask just to protect everybody else in the waiting room. I know the local hospital is asking if they have those symptoms and they don't have a chronic health condition and they aren't emergently ill that they don't go to the emergency room and they don't go to their doctor.
Although they can't keep sick students from going to class Koenigfman says FHSU is urging students to stay at home to prevent the spread of illness.
We're asking them to wait 24 hrs after the fever breaks and they don't need Tylenol or Ibuprofen to control the fever before they go back to class. And we're finding that a lot of them don't even feel good enough after 24 hours to go back to class, so that's kind of taking care of itself.
Koenigfman says there have been some cases that didn't match typical symptoms. Two students came in with bronchitis and a couple of days later tested positive for H1N1. One didn't even have a fever. For more information about the H1N1 flu virus and to see if your state is listed as having widespread influenza activity, visit the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website, c-d-c dot gov. I'm Lindsey Fields, HPPR News.
© Copyright 2009, hppr
(2009-10-06)
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We've just had five confirmed, but I think we've had more than that that are unconfirmed, so we haven't had many go to the hospital for overnight hospitalization, but if we do it's because they're dehydrated. The hospital tells us that most people that come in that have been confirmed statewide it's because they are dehydrated, people aren't getting enough fluids.
That's Dona Koenigfman, the Director of Student Health at FHSU. The school wants students to report flu cases and to go home when they're sick, but it's not required. For some students that's just not an option, like the international population or those far from home. Koenigfman doesn't think there's been an issue so far with underreporting.
I haven't heard from professors or anybody that they're seeing a lot of sick kids in class and that they feel like there's a problem with it, so I don't know that that's happening here. But we have heard that about other campuses that some of the kids aren't reporting because they don't want to be sent home, they feel like it's getting close to midterms and they can't miss school and they feel like they have to go, so they're just not reporting themselves ill.
The first wave of the H1N1 vaccine has been sent to states, but Koenigfman is unsure when the university will see its first doses. They're working with the health department, the local public schools, and the hospital to plan vaccinations and to make sure they aren't giving separate clinics. There have been delays in seasonal flu vaccines, so there's a possibility of combined clinics.
So I think we're all trying to hope for some of the seasonal vaccine to come in in conjunction with the H1N1 where we can do a clinic at the same time and give both vaccines. We all know that would be perfect, we're not sure that's going to happen and there are several different factors with construction at the hospital and things playing into what's going to happen.
Overall the emphasis at FHSU has been on education, like how to tell symptoms apart from a cold and the flu and the same advice we've all been hearing about washing our hands frequently and maintaining personal space. The student health center is taking some extra precautions to prevent spread to other students.
If anybody comes in with any kind of upper respiratory symptoms, sneezing, coughing, runny nose, anything like that we ask them to put on a mask just to protect everybody else in the waiting room. I know the local hospital is asking if they have those symptoms and they don't have a chronic health condition and they aren't emergently ill that they don't go to the emergency room and they don't go to their doctor.
Although they can't keep sick students from going to class Koenigfman says FHSU is urging students to stay at home to prevent the spread of illness.
We're asking them to wait 24 hrs after the fever breaks and they don't need Tylenol or Ibuprofen to control the fever before they go back to class. And we're finding that a lot of them don't even feel good enough after 24 hours to go back to class, so that's kind of taking care of itself.
Koenigfman says there have been some cases that didn't match typical symptoms. Two students came in with bronchitis and a couple of days later tested positive for H1N1. One didn't even have a fever. For more information about the H1N1 flu virus and to see if your state is listed as having widespread influenza activity, visit the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website, c-d-c dot gov. I'm Lindsey Fields, HPPR News.
© Copyright 2009, hppr
