University Health Center
With flu season in full swing and news of meningitis outbreaks on other college campuses in the air, this university is taking precautions to prepare for a potential spike in illness among students.
Both Princeton University and the University of California, Santa Barbara have seen cases of meningitis in recent weeks, but University Health Center officials said the university is just as prepared to deal with an outbreak of the rare bacterial infection as it is to respond to a flu outbreak.
“As in the past, the health center staff work closely with the local and state health departments to follow [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] advice regarding treatment, prophylaxis, and isolation requirements,” health center Health Promotion Assistant Director Hope McPhatter wrote in an email.
There haven’t been any unusual epidemic trends on the campus this year, McPhatter said, but the university has nonetheless made an effort to keep students informed about staying healthy.
“We update signage around campus regarding prevention strategies such as frequent hand washing, provide flu and meningitis vaccines, update educational material on website,” she wrote.
Meningococcal meningitis is a bacterial infection, while influenza is a virus, but both spread easily, said Donald Milton, director of the Maryland Institute for Applied Environmental Health.
Ongoing research attempts to better understand the most prevalent modes of transmission for the bacteria and viruses. Knowing whether they spread most often through airborne germs, on contaminated surfaces or from person-to-person interaction could help people to combat the spread of the virus more effectively, said Milton, who was also the principal investigator for last year’s Got Flu? study, which paid students with flu symptoms to participate in research.
“There are some pretty nasty flu viruses out there, and if we want to be prepared for it, we really need to understand how it’s transmitted, so we can slow it down to be able to prevent it,” he said.
Influenza often spreads in schools, so college campuses should promote respiratory etiquette, including covering one’s mouth while coughing and frequently washing hands, to minimize the virus’ impact, Milton said. However, vaccination is the most effective preventative measure, he said.
When responding to flu outbreaks and epidemics on the campus in the past, the health center has used mass emails and posts on its website to raise awareness among students, as well as stocked medications and vaccinations, McPhatter said. In recent years, technological advances have enabled better communication about health issues on the campus, said Typhanye Dyer, epidemiology and biostatistics professor.
The same precautions used for avoiding the common cold should be applied to evade meningitis as well, Dyer said, including isolation from others when sick to prevent spreading the illness.
“If someone has a bacterial infection, they may not know,” she said. “Before you know it, it’s being transmitted from person to person.” When vaccines are available, they work fairly well, especially in younger people with stronger immune systems, Milton said. But sometimes, a new strain emerges and a vaccine to combat it is not readily available, such as in the case of the recent meningitis outbreaks. In 2009, when the H1N1 flu hit the campus, the university did not obtain the right vaccine until November, after many students had already contracted the illness, Milton said.
“I don’t necessarily know whether or not Maryland would be prepared for a meningitis epidemic,” Dyer said. “Perhaps we may want to take precaution, especially in a season where students are traveling a lot.”
For students, taking precautions on an individual level is not difficult, Milton said — because the immune system is greatly influenced by stress, it is important to exercise and relax in addition to getting the flu shot.
Students often experience the most stress during finals week, which falls in the height of flu season. But Mackenzie Cutruzzula, a freshman journalism major who got the flu shot to minimize her chances of getting sick, said the health center’s efforts to prevent illness on the campus seem sufficient.
“I was surprised to read about [the meningitis outbreak], but I feel like our school is big enough that even if there was an outbreak, it wouldn’t spread as fast as it would on a smaller campus,” Cutruzzula said. “It definitely raises concern — it’s not something that’s typical — but hearing about an outbreak on a college campus is concerning.”
