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The H1N1 virus—sometimes called swine flu—continues to spread across the United States, and Northern Arizona University has been working for months to contain or, perhaps, stave off any widespread outbreak on campus.
A comprehensive prevention and education campaign for the fall semester is under way and includes widespread distribution of posters promoting good hygiene, hand sanitizers installed in hundreds of locations and educational information distributed to every member of our community and parents.
A web site has been established at nau.edu/flu with information about H1N1, including work place FAQs, symptoms and prevention tips.
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The symptoms of H1N1 flu virus are similar to the symptoms of seasonal flu and include cough, fever, sore throat, body aches, headaches, chills and fatigue. So far the H1N1 virus has been similar in severity to the seasonal flu. Most individuals fully recover without needing to seek medical care.
Health officials say H1N1 is so widespread that they discourage individuals with flu-like symptoms from seeking medical assistance unless they have underlying health issues or severe symptoms. Because Fronske officials may be overwhelmed with patients, they too are discouraging anyone who doesn’t need immediate medical attention from coming to the center.
The Centers for Disease Control guidelines say that sick individuals should not go to work, class or expose others until at least 24 hours after they are free of fever (temperature less than 100 degrees) without the use of fever-reducing medications. To protect family members the ill individual should wear a mask around others and continually clean surfaces, clean hands and cover their cough.
NAU will follow recommendations from the CDC and the Coconino County Health Department in managing the public health issues arising from the spread of this virus. All university decisions will be based upon the severity of the virus and the numbers of ill individuals and will be made in conjunction with Coconino County health officials.