Student preparedness for incomming H1N1 virus

Coming to college means one has reached a certain maturing state in life, and the ability to make decisions comes with those responsibilities. But with responsible decision making comes the need of information, because being informed is a key part of knowing what the next step should be.
With the imminent impact of the H1N1 flu right around the corner, and few students as prepared as the Health and Wellness Center would like them to be, there may be a rough road ahead.
Christine Burke, Director of the Center of Health and Wellness, said she expects more than 30 percent of students to be affected by the virus, because they are in a high-risk group.
“I do think we will see a significant amount [of H1N1 cases] in the next few weeks.” Burke said.
She said because students at Keene State College today were not around in the ‘70s when a strand of the swine flew swept through NH. The idea is that age group has a type of tolerance because they were exposed to it before. Reports say that the age range that is most vulnerable to the H1N1 flu is young people, ages five to 24.
Also students are under a significant amount of stress. Along with that factor students in college tend not to eat well and live in a community. This not only compromises their immune systems but also adds a quicker medium for the virus to spread through, according to Burke.
With these factors Burke said students need to be responsible for their self health. Weather it be before or after they contract any influenza like illness (ILI). She said eating right and getting a good night sleep are two of the best things anyone can do for their immune system and may help protect against the seasonal flu or H1N1 virus.
Burke also urges students with high-risk situations, such as asthma, diabetes, Crohn’s disease, transplants and/or pregnancy to take extra care. Also, if it comes to it, high risk students will have first consideration when it comes to care and being seen at Health Services.
One part of good decision-making is knowing what options are available to you. In this respect, if you are misinformed or told to do something and then expected to do another, you can’t make the right choices to recover from your illness.
Many students were told not to go to the Center of Health and Wellness if they felt any ILI symptoms. Burke said this is because, with a flu virus, there is nothing the Health Center staff can do. It’s all about bed rest and taking care of ones-self.
Nate Gordon, resident director of the East Halls, said the Center of Health and wellness is doing a lot to inform students by providing posters and online updates at least twice a week. Gordon believes this is helping to spread awareness and pushing students to think more critically about being more cautious. This includes covering sneezes and using hand sanitizer frequently.
But one thing students may not know is that they are urged to call the Health Center if they even suspect they have ILI symptoms, especially if they include sudden onset aches, chills, fever of over 100.4, and the symptom unique to H1N1, nausea and diarrhea.
The idea is to not infect the staff of the Health Center while still providing aid for those students who need information in order to make a decision and take care of them self. Also they do not want the infection to spread to other students in the center, who are waiting to see a nurse for the common cold or an achy muscle.
Over the summer Burke sent KSC students an email, telling them to bring thermometers and a stash of food that could last a few weeks if they needed it.
Few students heeded the warning.
“I [told students to bring thermometers] even though I knew 90% of students wouldn’t bring a thermometer,” Burke said.
According to Gordon Residential Life has been working very closely with the Center of Health and Wellness, assuring the messages of precautions and instructions get to residents. Resident assistants have also been trained to handle cases of H1N1 in their halls. Gordon said they would receive germ masks to help protect them against the airborne virus, while they carry out their work.
Although Burke predicts nearly 30 percent of students will be affected, Gordon said he doesn’t think it will get that bad. He believes because the virus runs its course so quickly, two to three days, there may already have been cases of it that were not identified.
And the real question now is, if the virus spreads quickly and, for some reason, KSC does see pandemic levels within the next week, will students be prepared?
“This very second, probably not,” said Gordon.
He did say that it is a case-by-case process and once the Center of Health and Wellness was aware of the issue and what it entailed, information would spread quickly and students would soon be informed.
But as for now Gordon believes what should be done is being done, and what can be provided for students is helping them kill any potential viral transfer by contact.
“We are big on hand sanitizer,” Gordon said.