<p>I’m neither an MD nor an epidemiologist, but it would seem that the concerns outlined in below article could apply equally to boarding school.
– Klements</p>
<p>Colleges brace for pandemic with flu dorms, online classes </p>
<p>By Tom Randall and Nancy Hass | Bloomberg News</p>
<p>Amherst College is keeping two residence halls empty this fall to isolate swine flu patients. Duke University, with 25 football players sick over two weeks, is weighing Web-based courses if an outbreak escalates. Emory University is rushing out seasonal flu shots.</p>
<p>Colleges across the U.S. are bracing for the first influenza pandemic in 41 years as the fall semester gets under way. Arne Duncan, U.S. secretary of education, and Kathleen Sebelius, health and human services secretary, met Thursday to provide recommendations for college students.</p>
<p>Swine flu, also known as H1N1, has so far caused “slightly worse” than normal flu seasons, with increased hospitalizations and cases of severe illness, according to the World Health Organization in Geneva. A vaccine won’t be ready in time to protect students when classes begin, and colleges say they aren’t taking chances with a virus that’s unpredictable and spreading faster than any previous pandemic.</p>
<p>“Every college in the nation will be dealing with it this fall,” said Michael Schoenfeld, a spokesman for Duke, in Durham, N.C. The university is putting hand sanitizer “everywhere,” and has sent e-mails to parents and incoming students about precautions they can take, such as washing their hands frequently and isolating themselves in their rooms or apartments if they have symptoms, he said.</p>
<p>Online instruction was being considered for some of the larger lecture courses, a measure that won’t be practical for most of Duke’s classes, which have six to 10 students in a seminar, Schoenfeld said.</p>
<p>Swine flu vaccines in the U.S. are delayed by manufacturing difficulties, and just 45 million doses of the government’s 195 million-dose order will be available by mid-October, U.S. health officials reported this week. In case of a vaccine shortage, shots will be given to targeted groups first, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. The U.S. plan focuses vaccine efforts on health-care workers, pregnant women and people aged 6 months to 24 years.</p>
<p>The vaccine will probably require two shots given three weeks apart, and recipients won’t produce antibodies for two more weeks, according to an Aug. 7 report by the Department of Health and Human Services. That means students may go unprotected until the last week of November at the earliest.</p>
<p>The seasonal flu vaccine is already available in some areas and is being distributed to colleges across the country, U.S. health officials said. At Emory in Atlanta, students will start receiving the voluntary shots the week of Sept. 14 instead of the usual distribution time of mid-October, said Alex Isakov, an associate professor of emergency medicine and director of the school’s preparedness and response office.</p>
<p>Amherst College in Amherst, Mass., has agreed to house infected students from four other local schools – Smith College, Mt. Holyoke College, Hampshire College and the University of Massachusetts. Amherst is keeping two residence halls empty for sick students, said Caroline Hanna, a spokeswoman for the school.</p>
<p>A schoolwide campaign launched this past spring at Amherst included posters illustrating “proper sneezing etiquette” and the danger of “sharing secretions.” The school also bought extra masks, Lysol and other disinfecting agents, according to a memo compiled by the Annapolis Group, an organization of small liberal arts colleges. The group surveyed its members on flu preparedness.</p>