Swine flu vaccines are expected to be available to the general university community the week after Thanksgiving Break, a university official said Friday. Since the beginning of Fall Semester, more than 300 influenza-like cases have been reported to Student Health Services, according to the university's Web site.
Dr. Joseph Siebold, director of Student Health Services, stated in an e-mail message that influenza-like illness, or ILI, is a non specific respiratory illness characterized by fever, fatigue, cough and other symptoms.
Marcia Nickle, emergency preparedness coordinator for campus and public safety, said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said 90 percent of flu cases this year are swine flu.
"It has basically overtaken and squashed out any other flu strain, so it basically has a monopoly on the flu market," Nickle said. "So, instead of testing everybody to see if they have H1N1, if you have influenza-like symptoms, we're counting you as an H1N1 case."
She said no students are being tested for H1N1 on campus because all flu cases are being treated as swine flu, and there have been no reported hospitalizations due specifically to swine flu.
Vaccines on campus, more to come
Currently, the treatment protocols are less than they were in the spring, Nickle said. During the April outbreak of swine flu on campus, officials gave out antiviral medications then because the CDC instructed them to do so.
"Now, they're telling us that unless you have a chronic medical condition, there's no reason to treat with any medication, so there's less of a sense of urgency about it because students are more informed," she said. "So, at this point, there's no urgent information to pass on."
The university's Office of Emergency Preparedness considers something to be urgent when the university community has to change their behavior, Nickle said. Mass notifications were sent out last spring because they wanted people to know immediately where they could go to get treated if they had influenza-like symptoms.
"At this point, the only thing I can see us using that for with H1N1, at least right now, if nothing changes, is when the vaccine is available for the student population," Nickle said.
According to the CDC's Web site, in a situation where a provider, such as Student Health Services, receives a limited amount of vaccinations, the CDC recommends the vaccine be given first to pregnant women, people who live with or care for children under six months of age, healthcare personnel who have direct patient contact, children six months through four years of age and children five years through 18 years of age and also have a chronic medical condition.
Nickle said since the university is required to follow CDC guidelines and has received a limited number of vaccines, officials have given vaccines to the groups recommended by the CDC. As of last week, the university has contacted students with chronic medical conditions, she said.
"We would then open it up to the rest of the student population, and we're being told that that is probably the week after Thanksgiving we'll start to get a lot more vaccines," she said. "The problem is we're only getting about a couple hundred doses at a time.
Officials decide against activating UD Alert System
In April, after four students were discovered to have swine flu, officials activated the UD Alert System notify the university community.
Nickle said the reason university-wide notifications were sent out through e-mail, text message and phone calls last semester and not this semester is because the university had not seen many H1N1 cases in Delaware or on campus, at that point.
"There was a lot of uncertainty and a lot of fear around it, and we wanted students to know that we were taking it seriously and know that we were doing something about it and know how to get information," Nickle said. "We want to reserve that text message system for something we feel is an urgent threat, and at the time, we didn't know enough about H1N1 to know what we were getting into."
Siebold said through the majority of the fall, the CDC and the Delaware Division of Public Health have advised the university that it is not necessary to test anyone for H1N1 since more than 98 percent of the flu cases sent to the CDC and state labs, for confirmation, were H1N1.
"At present most of the diagnoses of influenza are made on a clinical history and examination," he said. "We do sometimes test to see if there is another flu virus circulating in the community but the vast majority of influenza cases are H1N1."
University spokesperson David Brond said increased awareness is a contributing factor as to why the university community has not received mass notifications about swine flu this semester.
"I think a lot of students are depending on our Web site and the UDaily posts people subscribe to, both parents and students," Brond said. "I think that's providing enough information."
Precautions being taken for potential outbreak
Last spring, sophomore Melissa Luxemberg was treated for swine flu at the Neighborhood Emergency Help Center that was opened at the Carpenter Sports Building by the Delaware Division of Public Health. She went to the health center the day it opened, after she had been sick for a couple of days.
"I had influenza-like symptoms a couple weeks before finals, right when we got the university-wide text message and e-mail that the alert system sent out," Luxemberg said. "I had been sick for a couple days and I thought it may be swine flu."
She said she received a flu shot earlier in the year, so she knew she didn't have the regular flu. She had the illness for approximately seven days.
Luxemberg said when she was treated last semester, she was given Tamiflu, which is the medication given to individuals who are suspected of having swine flu.
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