Condoms? Check. Laptop? Check. Swine flu? Check.
This is the first time in 13 years I won’t be around campus for back to school and, frankly, I couldn’t be more pleased. Yes, I’m a little misty-eyed at the prospect of missing out on the electric atmosphere, the welcome back concerts and events, and the endless free samples of detergent, condoms and power bars handed out by marketing reps, but you know what I’m not sad about? SWINE FLU. Loads and loads of swine flu. Coughy, fevery, diarrhoeay, nasty, dirty swine flu. Everywhere.
If early data from the United States, where school goes back in late August, are any indication, campuses worldwide are going to be veritable cesspools of H1N1 this Fall. As of August 28, the American College Health Association had reported just over 2,000 suspected cases of H1N1 at its 189 sentinel colleges and universities. By September 5, however, the outbreak at Washington State University alone had ballooned to a suspected 2,000 cases. In its first two weeks of classes, WSU saw nearly 1 in 12 students contact a campus health care provider about flu-like symptoms.
There’s no reason to expect the situation in Canada will unfold any differently over the coming weeks, as the September campus is a most predictable beast indeed. There will be close social contact – buses like Tokyo subway cars, undersized and overfilled lecture halls, old friends and new friends coming together at parties, beer gardens and club meetings. There will be immune systems stressed by moves to new cities and the shock of having to return to a normal routine after a summer off. And there will be many, many people who mistake those first signs of illness for the after-effects of last night’s party. A virus couldn’t ask for a better home than the ivory tower come fall, really.
September outbreaks are, therefore, the rule rather than the exception. In 2006, for example, campuses from coast to coast were struck by norovirus, a gastrointestinal bug whose usual modus operandi is to infect cruise ship passengers sidling up to the Lido Buffet for a fifth helping of strudel. Salmonella rears its peritrichous flagellated little head fairly often, as do other more exotic viral illnesses like mumps, which has been appearing on campuses with such regularity in recent years that Ontario’s Ministry of Health started the “Mumps Campus Tour” to vaccinate students against this entirely preventable illness.
Most of these outbreaks are relatively small and well-contained due to the nature of the infectious agents. Pandemic H1N1, however, is a bug of a different colour. One need look no further than the name – pandemic H1N1. This is not something lurking only in the cafeteria’s day-old tray of mac’n’cheese or on the unwashed hands of one especially dirty student. Nuh uh. It’s everywhere, and a run-in is virtually guaranteed. Beyond its ubiquity, H1N1 is distinctly ageist in its infection profile, with students from kindergarten to grad school falling squarely within its sights, and the vaccine won’t be available until well past mid-term exams.
So what’s a student to do? First off, hope your university has a good H1N1 policy in place. There should be clear communication of guidelines surrounding self-isolation (like when to stay home and the importance of avoiding campus events if you’re feeling ill), and universities need to do everything they can to facilitate isolation, from providing private “sick rooms” for students in shared housing to ensuring absenteeism due to illness won’t be punished by docked marks or other penalties. Ditching the doctor’s note policy is important, as most primary care physicians are advising against coming in for a consultation if H1N1 is suspected, and universities need to encourage their professors to adopt distance-learning technologies to ensure that students can still access lecture material if they’re at home in bed with a barf bucket and laptop by their side.
Facilitating hygiene is another critical factor, although having seen the condition of some dorm rooms this one might be a bit of an insurmountable hurdle. Custodial staff need to be cleaning common surfaces (desks, door handles, etc...) more frequently, students should be cleaning their residence rooms more thoroughly than usual, and disposable wipes should be provided to allow people to wipe down things like clickers (those little poll-answer remotes many profs use during lectures) in between classes.
If your campus administrators have been living under a rock since April and haven’t enacted a flu policy, you and your fellow students need to take matters into your own hands, literally. Wash them . Frequently. Not just before a date or after you’ve dissected something in Bio 101. Also, if you have to sneeze, do it into a tissue (which you then throw away) or into the crook of your arm – not into your hands and not on the back of the head of the kid in front of you in class. If you see others sneezing incorrectly, glare at that. Scathing mockery at the hands of one’s peers is a very effective motivator for correcting behaviour.
Above all, if you feel a bout of influenza-like illness coming on, STAY AT HOME and don’t come back until you’ve been symptom-free for at least a full 24 hours. Be kind to your fellow students. They’re already stressed and/or hungover; let’s not add febrile and diarrhetic to that too.
Tagged with
swine,
back-to-school
| 
JENNIFER GARDY 
Comments
Jennifer, I have been following your blog for sometime. I really enjoy reading your posts -- many thanks!
This is a perfectly-timed post for Imagine Day at UBC. It's interesting to note how Brock Hall now has automatic hand-sanitisers and how the sinks at Irving K. have hand-washing instructions. Yes, I'm getting my share of Purell very shortly :P
Hey Jenn,
I just wanted to let you know that my daughter's JA is now in remission, so the steroids they injected into her knees (along with the crap they took out) seemed to work. Hopefully there's still a talented group at UBC continuing the work that you started there!
Greg.
For some reason... I kept having this image of John Travolta in a big plastic bubble appear in my head while I was reading this.
Unfortunately I am thinking that few will take the advice in this article until the worst is over.
Good job, Jennifer - well said.
I think you're wrong and moreover, in conflict of interest to be using your position here to push the idea of a "pandemic". You have a science degree not a degree in marketing.
Just a minute here. Why can't we go see a doctor when suspecting H1N1 infection? Aren't doctors meant to be seen in such situations? Are doctors refusing to be seen in such situations? Are doctors afraid that they will get infected too? Perhaps doctors are so concerned these days to preserve their rich lifestyle that they don't want to risk to get sick and not enjoy it as much.
Thanks Jennifer; after reading your article, I decided to read the e-mail sent to all students about H1N1 that was previously left unread.
Victor, I think you're taking this a bit too far. I doubt that the advice against seeing a doctor for suspected H1N1 is born from trivial lifestyle concerns. To the best of my knowledge, even the antivirals available aren't remarkably effective if one already has a full-blown flu case. If you possibly have H1N1, and a visit to the doctor isn't going to hasten your recovery, I'd prefer you stayed at home and didn't spread the disease to other people (of any lifestyle).
Sorry Laura I don't buy that. Not making to their ski trip at Whistler that's what the doctors worry about when they refuse to accept H1N1 patients. Where there is a will there is a way - suspected flu patients can be quarantined from others. It's always good idea to seek expert advice when suspecting illness because no patient can treat themselves better than their doctor, if he/she is not afraid to miss their vacation in Bahamas that is.
My girlfriend has the symptoms and just got refused or turned away from the medical clinic at the University...she's trying to go to another medical clinic...great healthcare we have here in Saskatchewan...
*discusted*
Hi Jennifer,
I suspect I speak for all of your avid readers when I say I hope all is going well for you, but hope you get a chance to post soon. I for one miss your, ahem, unique take on the world!
Cheers!
I seconds David's comment.
'Where have you gone Jenny Gardy ? Your last post was on September 8, 2009 ?
I'll be back soon enough - now that H1N1 has peaked in BC I've got the odd bit of spare time here and there during which I can bang out a few entries. :)
Alright, alright. Latest entry submitted to the editorial team. I promise not to be so lazy in the future, as long as the pigs promise to stop giving us the damn flu.
Leave a Comment
You can use basic HTML tags: i, em, strong, b, u, a, pre
All fields are required.