As students are back to colleges, the swine flu enters the campus.

Subin Lee1

While the outbreak of swine flu or H1N1 virus is a serious concern in all over the world, the students are back to the campus. The huge population living in the campus is not easy for health administrations to take care of. The members of colleges are not only from the one specific region like that of high schools, but they are all from the different streets, cities, states, countries and even continents.

photo: Swine flu rises at US colleges as students return

According to the news article “Swine flu: H1N1 flu on rise on college campuses”, Georgia Institute of Technology has about 150 suspected students of swine flu. The school just started two weeks ago, and as the major characteristic of the swine flu show, the virus is spreading every minute throughout the campus. The University of Kansas is also having same problem, having 200 reported students for flulike symptoms.The problem does not stop here. The health administrators have sent emails to all faculties and students in the campus to inform the situation and sending guidelines to decrease the rise of swine flu. However, as the student in Georgia Tech, I do not want to miss classes for low fever or cough, because it is hard for me to catch up the classes again. It does not only refer to me, but also the most of the tech students.

“Centers of Disease Control and Prevention” published the guidance for Institutions of High Education. However I believe each health administrations of the Institutions should take more realistic, well-informed, and appropriate guidelines that fits to that particular institution. Because each institution have different situation such as facilities, characteristics of students, and purpose of the institution, the administrators should consider which way is the most effective for that institution. Ultimately, the school should take more decisive action to deal with swine flu.