By Margaret Ernst
Dean Tidmarsh said on Oct. 26 that the Bryn Mawr and Haverford administrations were both “kind of watching and waiting” for swine flu to break out heavily on their campuses. A week later, the outbreak is hard to miss.
So far, a string of e-mails to students at both schools have comprised the most major attempts to battle it.
Haverford Health Services says they are treating 30 students for H1N1 symptoms, that is, for Influenza A symptoms. The e-mail update from Director of College Communication Chris Mills came on Sunday, when nine additional students came in sick. Health Services expects the infections to continue at this rate — around ten per day.
At Bryn Mawr, no number of H1N1 cases can be confirmed, but “an increased number” of students have been quarantined by health services for flu-like symptoms, Health Center Director Kay Kerr wrote in an e-mail Friday.
“It will be very hard to tell if someone who is sick has 2009 H1N1 flu or seasonal flu,” said a notice from Bryn Mawr Health Services. For that reason, lab tests to distinguish between the viruses are not being recommended.
Mills’s e-mail advised Haverford students suffering from cough, fever, headache, and sore throat to contact Health Services. Kerr provided a check-list of symptoms, which included vomiting, diarrhea and fever in addition to common cold symptoms.
Health Services staff at both schools are telling ill students to stay in their rooms to recuperate. Essential to H1N1 treatment throughout the country has been the advice to stay home or away from people until 24 hours after the fever disappears.
The much-awaited H1N1 vaccine was expected to be available at Bryn Mawr two weeks ago, but it has been delayed. Tidmarsh expects the vaccine will arrive at Bryn Mawr by the end of the month, and Milsl says it will come to Haverford by late November or early December.
Tidmarsh says the administration is considering an online registration process for the vaccine when it does arrive at Bryn Mawr, in addition to walk-in times.
"We’re trying to make it as efficient as we can," Tidmarsh said.
Nursing homes in the area have been able to administer the vaccine, and as of Oct. 26, Philadelphia schools can as well.
This article is © 2008 The Bi-College News. The material on this page is free for personal or educational use, but may not be reproduced, reprinted, republished, redistributed, or otherwise transmitted to a third party without the express written permission of The Bi-College News, 370 Lancaster Ave, Haverford, PA 19041.
Editor's note: Articles that appear in the Last Word section are works of satire.
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