How are all the campuses handling the swine flu issue?

[The Backlash Cometh]

My son's college seems to be very pro-active. Recommended a buddy system to ensure you have someone to get you food if you come down sick. My son came down with signs of a cold, and because I instilled him to take this flu thing seriuosly he went down to the clinic to get it check. They said it was just a cold, but told him to stay in his dorm room until it was over. Then they sprayed something up his nose that burned, he said. He didn't know what it was.

Anyone have a clue what it might be that they're now administering with a nose spray?

How are all the other campuses handling the situation?

[northernlights]

1. I just started Med Lab Tech -- in allied health programs ATTENDANCE IS MANDATORY! (unless

you have symptoms of the flu, in which case please stay home/in dorm).

In other words, pretty much the same policy. Even in programs where normally attendance is mandatory and missing a class is serious and labs cannot be made up, we've been asked to stay home if we have any symptoms and they've also recommended that we make sure we have food available (including a buddy system) and they will arrange for us to make up missed classes.

The concern at this point is not the virulence, but the ease with which this flu spreadsand lack of immunity in the bulk of the population. According to my MLT program director (also the lab director of the state's general hospital) the government is projecting up to 40% employee absenteeism possible at any given time.

[The Backlash Cometh]

3. Hmmm...do you suppose that people are able to get trace exposure

of the swine flu, enough for their body to develop anti-bodies to ward off a full-blown attack?

[northernlights]

5. yup. that would be a case so mild

that you don't even realize you have the flu. You need enough virus for the immune system to recognize the invasion and respond, but not so much that you're overwhelmed. Your immune system reacts so quickly and surely that the symptoms never get very obvious or long lasting. Maybe a couple days feeling extra tired. It happened with W. Nile virus, too. A lot of people never even knew they'd been exposed.

[sinkingfeeling]

2. Giant bottles of hand sanitizer all over campus and an isolation unit in a dorm.

[The Backlash Cometh]

4. That isolation unit suggests that someone is at hand to care for the sick?

[northernlights]

6. re: the nose spray

Possibly Relenza? That's a lesser known anti-viral than tamiflu, but effective and I seem to remember reading it is administered as a nose spray. I think it has fewer side effects, since it's administered directly to the infection site versus systemically. And some viruses are showing signs of resistance to tamiflu, so maybe there is a move away from tamiflu to keep it 'in reserve?' (I know they're trying that with some anti-biotics. Just stop using them for a few years until the resistance factors in bacteria disappear)