The College of Idaho
Important H1N1 Flu Information
The U.S. Government, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization have issued an alert about the H1N1virus (commonly known as swine flu) as it makes its way around the world.
The College of Idaho administration has protocols in place that will be taken in the event of an influenza outbreak. These procedures will be communicated to the college community.
The websites and articles below provide updated information about the H1N1 virus:
Joint Central/Southwest District Health departments memo about H1N1 vaccines (Dec. 10, 2009): download
H1N1 Memo for The C of I faculty, staff, and students (Oct. 16, 2009): download
H1N1 Memo for The C of I faculty, staff, and students (Oct. 8, 2009): download
H1N1 Memo for The C of I faculty, staff, and students (Oct. 2, 2009): download
H1N1 Memo for The C of I faculty, staff, and students (Sept. 25, 2009): download
H1N1 Memo for The C of I faculty, staff, and students (Sept. 18, 2009): download
H1N1 Memo for The C of I faculty, staff, and students (Sept. 15, 2009): download
H1N1 Memo for The C of I faculty and staff (Sept. 7, 2009): download
Information about H1N1 at The C of I (Sept. 4, 2009): download
H1N1 memo for The C of I students (Sept. 3, 2009): download
H1N1 memo for The C of I faculty and staff (Sept. 3, 2009): download
Student Guide to Swine Flu: download
American Red Cross Fact Sheet for coping with a pandemic: download
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention:
http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/#stay_healthy
http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/guidance/
http://www.cdc.gov/flu
Following are excerpts from the CDC’s H1N1 Guidance website.
CDC recommends that people with influenza-like illness remain at home until at least 24 hours after they are free of fever (100° F [37.8°C]), or signs of a fever without the use of fever-reducing medications.
This is a change from the previous recommendation that ill persons stay home for 7 days after illness onset or until 24 hours after the resolution of symptoms, whichever was longer. The new recommendation applies to camps, schools, businesses, mass gatherings, and other community settings where the majority of people are not at increased risk for influenza complications.
- Stay home if you are sick. If you have symptoms of influenza-like illness, stay home for at least 24 hours after your fever is gone except to get medical care or for other necessities (your fever should be gone without the use of a fever-reducing medicine). Keep away from others as much as possible. This is to keep from making others sick.
- Employees who are well but who have an ill family member at home with novel H1N1 flu can go to work as usual. These employees should monitor their health every day, notify their supervisor and stay home if they become ill. Employees who have an underlying medical condition or who are pregnant should call their health care provider for advice, because they might need to receive influenza antiviral drugs to prevent illness.
Employees should continue to watch for flu-like symptoms even after they return to work. What are the signs and symptoms of this virus in people? The symptoms of novel H1N1 flu virus in people include fever, cough, sore throat, runny or stuffy nose, body aches, headache, chills and fatigue. A significant number of people who have been infected with this virus also have reported diarrhea and vomiting. Severe illnesses and death has occurred as a result of illness associated with this virus.
How long can an infected person spread this virus to others?
People infected with seasonal and novel H1N1 flu shed virus and may be able to infect others from 1 day before getting sick to 5 to 7 days after.