NCC seeks to squash H1N1 threat on campus

By Matthew D. Homan
Assistant Editor

The start of the school year has brought with it to college campuses throughout the country the danger of a viral pandemic. Close quarters in dorms and in classrooms create ideal breeding grounds for disease. The 2009-2010 flu season is seeing the advent of a new threat, H1N1 novel influenza.

H1N1 influenza, formerly known as swine flu, is a strain of influenza, to which few people are immune or resistant. Illness associated with viral infection range from mild to severe. Most infected people have required no medical treatment to recover, but hospitalizations and deaths have been reported.

“The severity of the outbreak is not as bad as people thought,” said NCC president Joe Opatz. “It’s very much like a regular flu symptom. But the expectation is that a lot of people will probably be affected.”

On Sept 10, some NCC staff met with local health officials to discuss NCC’s plans for dealing with the expected flu outbreak. “They talked about the possibility of actually coming over and providing inoculations for students,” Opatz said.

Melinda Voss, Public Relations Director for MnSCU said in an email that MnSCU is working closely with state health officials to coordinate their efforts in combating a massive flu outbreak within the Minnesota college system.

“…H1N1 is here,” said Thomas Frieden, Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention at a press conference in early September. “It is spreading in parts of the U.S., particularly in the southeast, and in fact, it never went away.” He explained that in the southeastern part of the country, schools starting earlier this year were probably why the outbreak in that region has been so widespread – Georgia seeing the worst of it.

“We had H1N1 influenza throughout the summer in summer camps, and now with colleges and schools coming back into session, we’re seeing more cases,” said Friedman.

Compared to regular seasonal influenza, H1N1 is quite similar. Every year in the U.S. an average of 200,000 are hospitalized and 36,000 die due to complications from seasonal influenza. The unique quality of H1N1 lies in the age group it affects. Seasonally, those 65 and older are hit harder by the flu. This is not the case with H1N1 – those 25 years old and younger carrying a greatest burden from infection.

Symptoms of H1N1 infection are the same as the standard seasonal flu: fever, aches, runny or stuffy nose, chills, sore throat, and body and head aches. The CDC has recommended that if you have these symptoms, you stay home from school or work, in an effort to contain the viral spread.

According to the Minnesota Department of Health only three deaths are associated with H1N1. Though the outbreak has yet to seriously affect Minnesota or the Midwest at large in any significant way, experts believe this influenza to only be on its first legs.

Reported U.S. hospitalizations have topped 9,000 at time of press with roughly 600 deaths attributed to the virus, according to the CDC.

The CDC says that vaccination is key to the control of the virus. A priority list has been developed. Pregnant women, those who live with or care for children 6 months old and younger, health care and emergency medical personnel, and those aged 6 months to 24 years old, especially students are first in line.

A vaccine for the virus is not yet available to consumers nor has a specific date been announced for its availability, though a widespread vaccination campaign is expected sometime in the late fall.