The Auburn University Medical Clinic has diagnosed over 200 cases of H1N1 influenza since the start of classes.
However, despite a popular rumor that the University will have to shut down if 200 more students come down with it, that is just not the case.
"Can it happen? Yes," said Dr. Frederick Kam, director of the AUMC, about the University shutting down because of the virus more commonly know as "swine flu." "Do I see this happening? No."
Kam said the University would need to see a significant disruption in its ability to operate before it would shut down.
This means at least 20 percent of the faculty would be unable to conduct classes, or a significant number of students would be out because of the illness.
This could also happen if the staff at the AUMC started seeing so many cases of swine flu that they started to think they were looking at an epidemic.
However, if it did shut down, it would be for at least a week or two, Kam said. And then classes would have to be made up over Thanksgiving or Christmas break, before the spring semester.
The medical clinic sees about 15 to 20 more cases of the virus every day.
The reason students are so susceptible to the malady is because they have no natural immunity, Kam said.
"We have not had any kind of swine flu outbreak since the 1970s," Kam said. "So everybody who was born after that point has had no exposure, and no immunity to a virus like this."
However, it does not appear to be likely that swine flu will go away any time soon.
"Expect to see this on a continual basis all the way through the end of this semester, possibly next semester," Kam said.
The reason being Auburn has a large population of people with no natural immunity to this particular virus.
Also, students are constantly coming to and going away from Auburn, preventing the city from keeping the virus out.
As part of University policy during the swine flu outbreak, each professor has been asked to have a plan about how they would continue class if the University was shut down.
They have also been asked to come up with a plan for how they would have their classes covered if they were to become sick, Kam said.
As for the small number of fatalities that have been associated with the H1N1 virus, Kam said it is only people who have compromised immune systems that have anything to worry about.
"The average immune normal person really does not have a lot (to be concerned about)," Kam said. "Because so far, from what we're seeing, the symptoms and the outcomes of this particular flu is no worse than the seasonal flu."
But while the virus is still making its way through the student body, the University has taken a few precautions in order to alleviate the problem.
Hand-sanitizer stands have been placed in high-traffic areas throughout campus, and the University has handed out thousands of little flu kits that have items like hand-sanitizer and tissues in them.
Also, students who have gone to the AUMC and been diagnosed with the H1N1 virus have been given a couple of options. Students who live within what Kam called a "reasonable" distance from campus have been asked to be picked up and taken home by their parents until they are well.
Students who live on campus, but have parents who live too far away to pick them up, have been given the option to stay for a few days in University-created isolation dorms in the Extension, in order to keep the disease from spreading so much through the campus dorms, Kam said.
Do you like this story? The Plainsman doesn't accept money from tuition or student fees, and we don't charge a subscription fee. But you can donate to support The Plainsman.
