Swine Flu Press Release

Missing class for a week or more only leads to getting behind on homework and tests. This is no fun at all, especially when your time out of school was spent in bed with an awful sickness like swine flu. The big Swine epidemic scare has become something more and more common on college campus's, and is now more of a hassle than anything else.

Similar to the more common seasonal influenza flu, the H1N1 virus is spread from person-to-person. Symptoms of swine are also similar to the seasonal flu are; fever, cough, sore throat, runny or stuffy nose, body aches, headache, chills and fatigue, as well as diarrhea and vomiting.

The virus can be spread from one day before symptoms appear to seven days after being sick. Younger children may be contagious for a longer period of time.

There is an H1N1 vaccine currently out there, some reaching Corvallis, but it is much more scarce than originally expected. The longer amount of time to manufacture a dose of the vaccine has caused smaller quantities to be dispersed across the country.

Due to the lower amount of vaccines, several groups have been created by the Federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to decipher who has priority of receiving the vaccine over others. Be on the look out for a category you may fit into to see if you qualify for the vaccine.

• pregnant women
• people who live with or care for children younger than 6 months of age
• health care and emergency medical services personnel with direct patient contact
• children 6 months through 4 years of age
• children 5 through 18 years of age who have chronic medical conditions

According to the OSU campus alert page, “OSU will make certain that any campus-based H1N1 vaccine clinics or vaccine availability are promoted heavily to students, faculty, staff and others who might be eligible to receive the vaccine here.”

In order to prevent catching or passing the swine flu the OSU campus alert page recommends a few steps to taking precautions. Practicing good Hagen like, washing hands regularly with soap and water or an alcohol based sanitizer. Also avoid touching your eyes, nose, and mouth, cover mouth and nose when sneezing or coughing, do not share food or drink with others, and avoid contact with sick people. If you have the virus stay home until 24 hours after having a fever and try to limit contact with others as much as possible.

Information on academic issues related to the H1N1 are updated frequently on OSU's Emergency Alerts web page. More facts and videos on the swine influenza are located on the CDC website.