With flu season bearing down, the University of Wisconsin is shoring up its preparations to confront a potential H1N1 influenza virus, or “swine flu,” pandemic on campus.

Evidence suggests H1N1 has a greater severity of infectiousness among college-aged adults, making the virus a particular threat to campus communities where students, faculty and staff interact in close communities, according to Sarah Van Orman, MD, executive director of University Health Services.

As expected, some students have already come down with flu-like symptoms within the first week of school, according to Craig Roberts, an epidemiologist for UHS.

Although the severity of H1N1 is comparable to that of the regular seasonal flu, and most people recover within three to five days, the worry is that a large number of cases could upset normal operations at the university, Van Orman said.

In order to keep operations going in the event of an H1N1 outbreak, professors are being encouraged to embrace a wide variety of resources such as online instruction, conference calls and Facebook, UW School of Medicine and public health professor William Brauer said.

He added that professors are also being instructed to be lenient with students in terms of absences due to flu-related illness and to provide other opportunities to turn in assignments.

“Madison has had a pandemic planning and preparation process in place for a number of years,” Van Orman said. “This plan has been kicked into high gear over the last several months, and we are using the existing plan to take specific actions to address the potential H1N1 reemergence.”

Van Orman added it is vital for students to have a personal influenza plan should they come down with symptoms.

In addition to knowing if they are at particular risk for flu-related complications due to underlying medical conditions, students are also being encouraged to isolate themselves in case of infection.

Because there is no real treatment for the virus, students are being asked not to seek medical treatment from UHS or other health care providers to help save capacity within the health care system and to prevent creating a potential “infection vortex” in these establishments, Brauer said.

Rather, students are being asked to stay at home until they are fever-free for at least 24 hours without fever-reducing medication, Van Orman said.

When possible, students are also being strongly encouraged to have family or friends pick them up to return home to recover.

If a student is unable to return home without using public transportation, there will be isolation rooms available in the dorms for students to recover without risking widespread exposure to other students, according to Roberts.

The most effective strategy there is to control the reemergence and potential impacts of the virus will be vaccination, Van Orman said.

There will be two kinds of vaccinations this season, one for the regular seasonal flu virus, available starting Sept. 21 through UHS and a two-dose vaccine for the H1N1 virus, estimated to be available sometime in mid-October, Van Orman said.