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UB educating community about flu
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With the H1N1 “swine flu” virus making the news again as the flu season approaches, UB is taking precautionary steps to ensure that students and employees are educated about H1N1.
As the school year begins, UB has distributed information to incoming students on how they can protect themselves and their peers from contracting and spreading infectious diseases. Similar materials are available to the entire university community via the Emergency Information and Resources Web site.
Campus Dining and Shops has placed hand sanitizer dispensers at dining centers in residence halls and other buildings on campus. Workers in the unit received a presentation on H1N1 earlier this summer, and have access to a pamphlet with information on swine flu, including how to recognize it and prevent it from spreading.
An infectious disease control committee comprising three UB doctors is helping the university’s emergency oversight committee monitor the H1N1 virus in the region and advising the university on what precautions to take.
Jim Reger, emergency planning program manager, Environment, Health and Safety Services, emphasizes that the university is taking precautions based on the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s guidance for higher education institutions. While people should take care to implement simple measures that help prevent the spread of infectious diseases, such as washing their hands, they should not panic, Reger says.
Richard Lee, a professor of medicine who is an expert on infectious disease proliferation and prevention, says that if the H1N1 virus does not acquire new properties that increase its transmissibility and virulence, chances are that “there will be a resurgence of the virus causing clinical illness, but that the number of previously infected individuals will blunt the severity of the winter time flu season.”
If the virus does acquire new, dangerous characteristics, however, “It is a whole new ball game with expectations of widespread and more severe illness,” Lee says.
“Should we worry? Well, the answer is wishy washy,” Lee says. “Maybe. We should plan and be prepared because we are rational, not afraid. Individual hygiene, courtesies about exposing others—staying home, covering sneezes and coughs, washing hands—are essential for personal and public health protection.”
With an eye toward encouraging such measures, students checking into residence halls received an email from Joe Krakowiak, director of university residence halls and apartments, advising them to maintain healthy habits, such as getting enough sleep, eating a balanced diet, washing their hands frequently and covering their noses and mouths with a tissue when they cough or sneeze. The note also included a list of symptoms associated with H1N1 infections and information on what students should do if they feel ill. Staff also laid a copy of the notice on students’ pillows, Krakowiak says.
At residential check-in sites, campus housing workers set up stations where people could use hand sanitizer. Krakowiak says his office has 8,000 4-ounce bottles of sanitizer available should a need arise to distribute them. Cleaning staff wear a mask and wipe more surfaces more often when a resident contracts an illness.
At their August orientation, international students received a handout discussing the illness. The one-page document provided them with information on how to contact the Student Health Center if they think they have contracted swine flu, and informed them that the virus is spread through close personal contact.
Incoming international students also are receiving hand sanitizers to remind them to take precautions against spreading infections. Current and returning international students will be able to view updates regarding swine flu on Listserv messages and announcements on the International Student and Scholar Services Web site.
With the United States seeing more cases of H1N1 to date than any other country, John Wood, associate vice provost for international education, says international students and their parents “are understandably concerned and have asked our office about our plans for handling an outbreak at UB.”
Wood noted that several students returning home to Asia after spring semester contracted swine flu before reaching their destinations and were quarantined and/or hospitalized upon arriving in their home country. One became seriously ill but later recovered. A Japanese institution where UB students study abroad canceled its summer program due to H1N1.
Before students and faculty go abroad to participate in exchange programs, UB advises them regarding screening and quarantine regimes in host countries, Wood says.
As the school year continues, safeguards to help prevent the spread of infectious diseases on campus will remain in place. Along with dining areas, high-traffic areas in residence halls such as fitness centers and apartment business centers have been outfitted with hand sanitizer dispensers.
Reader Comments
Sungjun Lee says:
I really think that UB must install hand Sanitizer or Keyboard and Mouse cleaner. Those things are great source of bacterias.
Posted by Sungjun Lee, Ok here is Issue for me., 09/09/09
Gerald Finnegan says:
The University - unlike many others educational institutions - has given negative responses to requests for hand sanitizers in classrooms and other communal instructional areas.
Students and others in the University community therefore have a greater risk of transmission and complications from H1n1. Since the age group most affected by H1n1 are the young to begin with, this refusal is puzzling and gives a poor impression of the University's commitment to its own students' health and safety. Students are asking questions about this.
If there is major consequence to this illness, so will parents and outsiders.
I suggest the University quickly reverse gears on this point.
Posted by Gerald Finnegan, Professor, Director: Acting, 09/03/09