Senior Seminar Revisits Swine Flu Prevention

 The H1N1 virus’s origins, current statistics, symptoms, and prevention methods were topics of discussion in an information session that seniors from the mass communications department and staff from the Bloomsburg University Health Center presented in Carver Hall on November 4. To inform students about the virus, Katie Hinkle, Kristie Gibson and Matt Hartmann of mass communication’s Senior Seminar class organized the presentation, which featured speeches from Cindy Harris, director of the health center, and Catherine O’Neil, a certified nurse practitioner at the health center.

            H1N1, also known as the swine flu, has caused around 20,000 hospitalizations and 1,000 deaths in the U.S. to date, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. President Obama declared the virus a national emergency in October.

            To date, BU has had about 190 diagnosed cases of flu. The health center received 2,400 doses of the H1N1 vaccine, which it is currently administering to students. The school had a vaccination clinic on Nov. 2 where it expected to use all available doses quickly, but only 1,101 students attended to receive vaccinations. Harris and O’Neil attribute the low turnout to media hype, which has spread rumors about the side effects of the vaccine, and caused Americans to believe that the vaccinations are more of a health risk than the actual disease. However, the Student Health Center is encouraging students not to allow the rumors and hearsay to scare them, and to get the vaccine as soon as possible, as side effects and rare and most people will not experience them, according to Harris and O’Neil. The health center is offering the remaining doses by appointment until Fall Break. It will give the unused doses to the Bloomsburg Hospital after that, as hospitals across the country have experienced far greater demand than supply for the vaccine.

            The first reported case of H1N, was a 5-year-old Mexican boy living near the U.S. border, diagnosed in March, said Harris. The CDC believes that the boy contracted the disease from a swine/human virus crossover from a nearby pig farm. From there, H1N1 spread throughout Mexico and into the United States and the rest of the world, infecting more than 70 other countries worldwide. The CDC declared the disease an epidemic in June, when initial testing found 90 percent of those with flu-like symptoms to be H1N1 positive.

            Those most at risk of contracting H1N1 are people in the 5 to 25-year-old range, who were not exposed to this strain of flu in the past and therefore, have not developed immunity to it. Other risk factors, Harris and O’Neil said, are asthma, obesity, diabetes, a weakened immune system, and pregnancy.

            Symptoms of the swine flu are similar to those of a regular seasonal flu: fever, cough, body aches, fatigue, chills, nasal congestion, and sore throat. The severity of symptoms varies from person to person, with some patients merely feeling uncomfortable and rundown for a few days and others requiring intensive hospital care and a respirator. Recovery is usually seen within five to seven days.

            H1N1 is no more deadly than the usual seasonal flu, which affects 5 to 20 percent of Americans annually and kills about 36,000 worldwide. The important difference, O’Neil said, is that this strain is far more contagious than the normal flu, and can settle in deep lung tissue, potentially leading to severe pneumonia.  The disease’s rapid spread is what has caused so much concern among health officials—as of publication date, the CDC estimates 1 million people have contracted the disease and more than 6,000 have died worldwide.  That is more than the amount that would have normally gotten sick this early into the flu season.

            Bloomsburg University advises students to go home if they get sick so that they do not spread the virus to others on campus. Those experiencing flu symptoms should avoid social contact until they have been fever-free for 24 hours and have passed the contagion period. Germs can become airborne by coughing, sneezing, laughing, even talking and travel three- to six feet before settling downwards, so healthy people should keep their distance from those with the flu.

            The Student Health Center, Harris and O’Neil said, sends professors a note notifying them of a student’s extended illness once the student has been diagnosed and sick for three days to verify that their sickness is legitimate. Students must still contact their professors to arrange to make up missed work.