Though only discovered this past April, the H1N1 virus – swine flu to some – has quickly surged to the top of the world’s health news, a topic magnified now that students have returned to class in many northern hemisphere countries. Indeed, with millions of students back on campus right now, college officials are concerned that the spread of influenza-like illnesses will worsen over the coming months.
ACHA Tracks ILI
Feeling awful? Head to your college health center if you suspect that you have the flu. Head to an urgent care center or hospital emergency room if your center is closed.
One organization working with colleges to help track flu like illnesses is The American College Health Association (ACHA). The ACHA concurs with the sentiments of college officials, sharing their belief that many flu outbreaks may originate on campus. As a result, the ACHA says that “it may be epidemiologically valuable to identify disease burden and population based attack rates of influenza like illnesses (ILI) [ICD-CM Diagnosis 487.1] specifically on college campuses.”
To underscore their concern, the ACHA has recruited interested college and universities to freely join an existing network whereby schools submit brief online data weekly as regards to the number of new cases of ILI. The ACHA is assembling this information and publishing it to their website weekly and will pass along its findings to the CDC (Centers for Disease Control) as well.
What The Initial Report Reveals
The first ACHA report has already been compiled and published, revealing that involved schools reported over sixteen hundreds cases among two million students. More than half of the 165 reporting schools experienced influenza cases last week. The southeast and northeast US were the two regions in the country reporting the highest number of cases in the country.
To track the ACHA’s findings, please visit www.acha.org/ILI_Surveillance.com. Cumulative data will be included as additional reports are filed.
SayCampusLife.com will continue to share flu related news over the coming months. Feel free to submit your links and topics to us via our online contact form.
Source: The American College Health Association (ACHA)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
end of post idea
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
view home improvement ideas at our Photo Remodeling center
Helpful article? Leave us a quick comment below.
And please share this article within your social networks.
