University Health Services saw a sharp drop in the number of students reporting influenza-like symptoms over the past week, officials said Tuesday.
UHS evaluated a total of 46 students who complained of having influenza-like symptoms, a decrease from the 115 students evaluated the previous week. Also, influenza cases made up 2.8 percent of the total primary care visits — the lowest percentage since the start of the semester.
However, UHS epidemiologist Craig Roberts said the sudden drop in swine flu cases on campus, as well as in state and nationwide cases, does not hold much meaning because instances of a pandemic disease tend to follow an up and down trend of peaks and valleys.
“While the campus may have already reached its peak in student cases, the unpredictable disease could very easily come roaring back,” Roberts said.
UHS is especially concerned about the possibility of the disease’s intensification over the next two months.
Since cases of swine flu often materialize in students who leave and then return to campus, the campus community may experience an increased amount of influenza activity directly after the Thanksgiving and winter break, UHS Executive Director Sarah Van Orman said.
During a lecture Tuesday, Christopher Olsen, professor of public health and associate dean for academic affairs in the School of Veterinary Medicine, said the pandemic status of swine flu — which may or may not be contributing to the UHS tally — is a result of its high transmissibility among humans, not necessarily because of the severity of the disease.
Although most people refer to the disease as swine flu, Olsen said this name is incorrect because the disease is actually caused by a human virus that has developed mutations, allowing it to travel from human to human.
Due to genetic reassortment, Olsen said H1N1 consists of a North American and Eurasian swine genetic origin yet it has a human epidemical origin. Therefore, every human who contracts the disease does so because of contact with another infected human, not because of contact with an ill pig.
Genetic studies place the birth of the current strand of H1N1 at 10 years ago, but they have no information pertaining to where the virus originated or if it originated in humans or in pigs.
The majority of H1N1 cases are occurring in children and young adults in virtually every country of the world, Olsen said. While those who are at risk for swine flu are the same people who are at high risk for contraction of the seasonal flu, the obese population also possesses a greater probability of becoming infected.
“The vaccination has proven to be the most efficient way of limiting the outbreak of any type of influenza virus,” Olsen said.
Currently, students who are pregnant, the primary caregivers of infants or high risk patients can protect themselves against the disease by receiving the H1N1 vaccine, yet relatively healthy students have no access to such prevention, Van Orman said.
Although vaccines have been somewhat scarce, Roberts said UHS hopes to have the vaccination available to everyone who wants it by the first week of December.
