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Last updated Thursday, April 30 at 5:45 p.m.
The four original cases of swine flu found on campus have been confirmed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and 12 more probable cases have been identified, university and state officials announced Thursday afternoon.
Three of the four students confirmed to have the illness have stayed in Newark, including at least one in a residence hall. The university does not plan to cancel classes or isolate the infected students, spokesman David Brond said during a press conference outside Pearson Hall.
President Barack Obama urged schools with confirmed or suspected cases of swine flu to "strongly consider temporarily closing" as a precaution on Wednesday, but Brond said that would not be the best decision for the university.
"We're taking it on a day-by-day basis," Brond said. "Right now, it does not make sense to cancel classes and have students disperse to their homes and communities."
The university has canceled many public events, including this weekend's Relay for Life fundraiser and FestivALL, the multi-RSO event originally planned for Friday. The public events are being treated differently than class, Brond said.
""That's bringing new people onto the campus, people from distances as far as 50 miles," he said. "We view that as different - public events or sending students to sporting events that are a distance away - versus a contained community here on campus."
The university's baseball and softball teams' road games have also been canceled this week after it was discovered that a member of the baseball team is one of the four students confirmed to have swine flu.
Jay Lynch, spokesman for the Delaware Department of Health Services, urged infected students to take precautions against spreading the illness, but noted that there are no efforts to isolate the students.
"If you're ill or something, try to self-isolate, wash your hands," he said. "If you know you have plans to go to a large event and you're not feeling well, you restrict yourself and don't go to that."
More than 400 students have been examined at the two clinics set up on campus - Student Health Services in Laurel Hall and the Carpenter Sports Building. Students displaying flu symptoms are given a throat culture test, wait 20 minutes for the test results and, if results are positive for flu, receive the anti-viral drug Tamiflu, Lynch said. Positive tests are sent to the CDC for confirmation.
The university is not informing students who share classes or residence halls with the infected students, Brond said, citing privacy laws. However, he said officials are working with Housing Services to make arrangements in case the sick students or their roommates request a different place to stay temporarily.
"These are mild cases," he said. "These are not serious cases we're looking at. This is not an outbreak. A healthy person will be fine and feel fine."
Brond encouraged healthy students to attend class and to stay on campus this weekend.
"There's no harm in going about our everyday activities as long as we continue to wash our hands and take precautions and cover our mouths when we cough and sneeze," he said.
Brond said there are no known connections between the infected students. One of the 12 students listed as having a probable case spent Spring Break in Mexico, where swine flu is thought to have originated, but officials are not sure if the student contracted the virus there.
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