Actions taken to control H1N1 at MU
Students are urged to stay home if sick with flu-like symptoms.
Published Sept. 1, 2009
Forty-eight students were showing flu-like symptoms as of Friday, MU spokesman Christian Basi said.
MU has learned from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention that any person exhibiting flu-like symptoms should treat the illness as H1N1 influenza, Basi said.
No further cases on campus will be tested and no updated count of how many students with H1N1 symptoms will become available, Chancellor Brady Deaton said in an e-mail to students Monday.
"Novel H1N1 influenza (swine flu) is present at MU," Deaton said in his e-mail. "The severity appears to be relatively mild, comparable to the seasonal influenza that occurs every winter, and medical intervention is usually not necessary. Following the recommendations of the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, MU is no longer testing for novel H1N1 influenza."
Eddie Hedrick, emerging infections coordinator for the department, said because the virus is known to be throughout Missouri, it doesn't matter whether a specific case is the regular seasonal flu or H1N1.
"Treatment is the same for both," Hedrick said. "In fact, H1N1 has basically become the seasonal flu by crowding out the other flu viruses in existence. However, this new strain is more contagious, it can survive the summer temperatures, and it has milder symptoms. Our big concern is that if the virus mutates, it could become more dangerous."
Beginning late October, a vaccine for the virus will be available through the Student Health Center at no cost to students, Basi said.
"When the health center requested the vaccine, they indicated the population of campus, that's what we requested, but we're going to be have to wait and see how many they can give to us," Basi said. "That is unknown at this time."
Student Health Center Director Susan Even said the center will hold outreach vaccine clinics in locations on campus to vaccinate a large number of students. The vaccine will require two doses, about three weeks apart, she said.
Whether students will take advantage of the vaccine is another unclear issue. Freshman Allison Becker, who was exposed to swine flu over the summer while working at a children's camp, said she would most likely not get the vaccine.
This is not to say MU students haven't been directly affected by the swine flu. Over the summer, five students were quarantined in South Korea while training to teach at a summer English camp for Korean children. Senior Megan Holly was one of the students quarantined.
"We were quarantined from the first day we got there on July 18," Holly said. "Our first week there, the South Korean government already had it planned out that we were going to be quarantined while we were in training."
Holly said she didn't start feeling sick until then end of the first week and felt like she was coming down with something similar to the common cold. It wasn't until she could tell she had a fever that she knew she had contracted the virus. Having a fever is an essential symptom of H1N1.
The chancellor's e-mail also includes more specifics and information on avoiding and coping with the virus. Students are instructed to only return to work or class once their body temperature has been less than 100 degrees for at least 24 hours without the use of fever reducing medication.