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A Neighborhood Emergency Help Center opened at the Carpenter Sports Building Wednesday morning to assess any students experiencing symptoms coinciding with the swine flu.
The emergency help center was set up by the Delaware Division of Public Health. One hundred and two staff members, including 31 registered nurses, from the division were on site to help assess and treat students, Heidi Truschel-Light, the media relations director for the Delaware Division of Public Health, said.
"It's essentially the way that the Division of Public Health delivers health services and conducts health assessments for the community during emergency situations," Truschel-Light said.
The help center opened at 9:25 a.m. By 10:30 a.m., 18 individuals had come to the site, Truschel-Light said. Fifteen of the individuals received anti-viral medication. Three had no symptoms.
While inside the help center, she said she heard some individuals were ruled out of having swine flu due to symptoms relating to allergies.
"The students are being assessed to find out what it is they feel their symptoms are, and if the symptoms are consistent. There's some other guidelines, such as travel to Mexico," Truschel-Light said. "They move on through the process to be considered for receiving anti-viral medication and a number of students did get that today. The Centers of Disease Control [and Prevention] and other health sources are saying that anti-virals are effective."
She said she does not feel students should stop going to class.
"To my knowledge, we have not, as a public health agency, advised any precautions concerning that," Truschel-Light said. "That is something to continue to look at our Web site for."
Information regarding swine flu on campus will be updated regularly on the Delaware Division of Public Health's Web site. The information can be found under the "Press Release" section of the Web site.
Detective Steve Smith of the Newark Police Department is stationed at the university's Student Health Services at Laurel Hall. Smith said the center has seen continuous traffic all day.
"It's been steady," Smith said. "It got crowded at one point and they sent some of them to the Little Bob."
He said Student Health Services has gotten backed up, even with 10 doctors on site.
"It takes some time to examine a person. What they're doing basically is a triage," Smith said. "If they're just sniffling, they send them over here. If it's worse than that, they send them a different direction."
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