H1N1 scare at US varsity

Some 2,000 students at Washington State University have reported symptoms of swine flu, university officials said, in one of the largest reported outbreaks of the virus on a US college campus.

Washington state’s Whitman County, where the school is located said that tests at a state laboratory late last week “confirmed that the influenza outbreak at WSU is caused by the novel 2009 H1N1 Influenza “We estimate that we have been in contact with about 2,000 students with influenza-like illness in the first 10 days of our fall semester. We also have no way of estimating how many students are self-caring at home without contacting us.”

The university of about 19,000 students added that it is following guidelines issued by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in advising students how to avoid catching and spreading the virus.

CDC’s director Thomas Frieden said health officials are reporting an “unusual” number of flu cases so far this school year. “This is really something we haven’t seen before. It’s very unusual to see flu continue to occur over the summer. It’s very unusual to see it start to increase this rapidly in August and September.”

WSU said it has begun handing out flu self-care kits to students. “Two hundred of these kits have already been distributed with 1,000 more in process,” university officials said. “The overwhelming majority of our patients have had mild symptoms and are usually better in three to five days.”