Two University students told the Emerald on Monday evening they had been diagnosed with the H1N1 virus, also known as swine flu, by doctors at the University Health Center.
However, University Health Center Director Mike Eyster said the health center has seen cases of swine flu throughout recent months but would not classify any of them as “confirmed.”
“For several weeks now we have been getting students coming in with what the (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) call ‘influenza-like illnesses,’” Eyster said. “The health center has not been testing these cases because the virus is so prevalent and because so many people have been exposed. Reporting individual cases is not newsworthy.”
Eyster said the CDC told college health centers that testing for the virus was “not a good use of public health services and dollars.”
The health center will conduct a test only if a student shows “deep interest, or if there are health factors” involved, Eyster said.
The health center has seen more than 50 cases of swine flu, Eyster said. He added that the virus “has pretty well found its way into the community,” in particular, “college campuses and K-12 schools.”
“What we’ve seen with other schools is that the virus gradually builds for a couple of weeks and then begins to taper off,” Eyster said. “What we don’t know is if there will be another cycle like this, and if more people will get it. But those who already had the illness will, of course, have the immunity to it.”
Sophomore Kalin Sommer, a psychology major, has been sick since Friday with what she said a health center physician diagnosed as swine flu.
Sommer, who has asthma, went to the health center Monday for a scheduled appointment and received a “breathing test” to check her respiratory system, a procedure done in order to protect “high-risk” patients with serious health complications. Sommer said she was told during her checkup that she had a confirmed case of swine flu and has been home since then.
“(The physician) could tell right when she checked on me,” Sommer said. “They know what the symptoms are and what to look for, but I know it can be hard for them to tell for sure.”
Sommer said her roommate was also diagnosed with swine flu.
To Sommer, the swine flu has been more debilitating than other illnesses she has had in the past.
“I’ve had the flu before,” Sommer said. “But I’ve never felt so fatigued and tired for so long. I have been walking around like a zombie.”
The health center, as with Sommer and her roommate, is telling students with swine flu to stay home for 24 hours after their fevers break in order to avoid unintentionally spreading the virus.
“We don’t know who will catch it and what health complications they might already have to make the illness worse,” Eyster said.
According to the CDC, there have been approximately 900 deaths resulting from all types of influenza ­—not just H1N1— from Aug. 30 to Sept. 19, 2009.
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