The 506 confirmed cases of H1N1 influenza in Mexico aren’t enough to end the University’s Mexican study-abroad programs, according to statements issued last week.
Although the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recommended that Americans not travel to Mexico unnecessarily, the University has not announced plans to end its study-abroad programs in Mexico early, where 21 students are studying.
Colleges including Dartmouth, Michigan State University and Western Michigan University announced last Wednesday that they are cancelling their programs in Mexico and reconsidering programs scheduled for summer.
The Interamerican University Studies Institute in Eugene co-sponsors the study-abroad program in Querétaro, Mexico, and issued a statement last week, saying it had brought students back early to Querétaro from an excursion in Mexico City when it learned that all public buildings, schools and universities had been shut down until Wednesday, May 6.
It also assured parents that students would continue classes off-campus with no changes to the academic program.
University junior Alex Epperly, currently studying abroad in Querétaro, Mexico, said Friday that while the University is keeping its students abroad updated by e-mail, he’s not too worried about the potential of contracting the virus.
“I think people are overreacting to this,” he wrote in an e-mail. “It is the flu, it’s not the bubonic plague or hantavirus.”
Epperly reported that stores ran out of protective masks last week after the Mexican government aired public service announcements on television urging people to wear the masks to prevent the spread of germs.
“A lot of people are wearing those silly masks (as if that’s going to really protect them against microscopic germs),” he wrote. “I’ve seen some people even wearing them just over their mouth and not over their nose, which is about as protective as wearing a motorcycle helmet on the back of your head.”
Epperly said he’s not wearing a mask and doesn’t consider it a necessary precautionary measure.
Wade Sugden, a University junior studying in Morelia, Mexico this term, wrote in an e-mail last week that his program’s sponsor, AHA International, has announced it will not cancel its current or upcoming summer programs.
Classes in Morelia have also been canceled and program administrators have urged students to “stay indoors as much as possible,” he wrote.
No cases of swine flu have been reported in Morelia, but the Tennessee Board of Regents on Wednesday canceled a study-abroad trip to Morelia scheduled to begin next week.
Sugden is recovering from a recent virus, but he said he doesn’t consider himself at high risk for contracting the H1N1 virus.
“I am actually just getting over the flu (not swine flu) after a week and a half, so this is all pretty fascinating for me. That I would find myself in Mexico during this huge health crisis but also be sick for part of that time! I don’t feel threatened or scared at all,” he wrote. “It does feel like Mexico City is not a place I’d want to be right now because there is a ton of air pollution, so you’d already be setting your respiratory system up to be vulnerable for infection.”
While Epperly wrote that he knows of other students who are making plans to return to the U.S., he plans to stay in Mexico, where he is enjoying the cultural experience. Epperly is also leery of how Oregonians might react to his return.
“First of all, the dumbest thing to do right now would be to go to an international airport for several hours and then sit on a plane with recycled, unsanitized air for another five,” he wrote. “If you really are afraid of getting the flu, that’s probably the best way to contract it. Not to mention how we’ll be treated like fucking lepers once we get back because of these unbelievable sensationalistic news reports about the disease. They make Mexico seem like it’s in chaos, so I can only guess what people would think of us when we came back.”
IUSI’s resident program director, Laurie de Gonzålez, and IUSI Vice President Gabriela Castañeda are monitoring the students’ health daily and plan to seek medical care for the students if any symptoms develop, according to last week’s statement.
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21 students studying abroad in Mexico to stay
Daily Emerald
May 3, 2009
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