Missouri Universities deal with swine flu in residence halls

Intro:	Students met more than new friends in their residence halls this school year.
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Wrap: Missouri college students faced H1N1 in their residence halls this semester.

This flu is expected to be extremely contagious, Lora Folz, a doctor with Jefferson City Medical Group said.\

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Description: The majority of the population is going to get swine flu because we are not vaccinated against it. But the severity of your disease is most likely going to be very low unless you are one of the unlucky that get a complication from it.

Each university has a different plan to deal with the pandemic flu, ranging from telling students to rest in their rooms to providing quarantines for infected students.

The University of Missouri is not keeping track of how many students have H1N1 because they are not testing for it.

MU Residence Hall Adviser Chris Spurlock said the university is diagnosing over the phone, and excusing students who are infected from class.

MU, like other schools, is offering a sort of "Get Well Meal" service to students who are too sick to eat in dining halls.

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Description: Roommates can go to the dining hall with a request form for a meal and they'll give them kind of like a brown bag lunch to eat in their room so they don't have to spread it.

He said another thing RAs were instructed to do is to treat infected students just like any other students so as not to outcast them in their dorms.

Washington University in St. Louis is also taking similar precautions, though they are setting up recovery centers for infected students and asking infected students to wear masks when leaving their rooms.

Wash U Associate vice Chancellor of Student Relations Steve Hoffner said they've had an infectious disease task force preparing since last spring.

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Description: We've placed hand sanitizers at locations around our campus, we've developed posters and informational pieces that are posted around campus about the importance of good hand hygiene.

Wash U ordered 500 thermometers and is stock piling the medicine Tamiflu which is effective in fighting swine flu.

From Jefferson City, this is Allison Blood, KSMU news.

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Intro:	As Missouri college students become infected with swine flu, universities are making plans to help them get better.
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Wrap: The University of Missouri-Columbia has seen an increasing number of students infected with the flu.

In technicality, the University is not testing for the virus, but diagnosing over the phone to prevent students from infecting others at the health center.

Residence Hall Adviser Chris Spurlock said the University instructed RAs to keep infected students in their rooms, and have roommates bring them meals from the dining halls.

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Description: And we're kind of just doing our best not to treat them as like really a pariah on the floor, just treating them as someone that's just a typical resident and not "the girl with swine flu."

Spurlock said he only had four cases on his floor, and hasn't seen any new outbreaks in about a week.

From Jefferson City, this is Allison Blood, KSMU news.

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Intro: Some Missouri Universities	have seen an outbreak of swine flu on their campuses, but that is not the case everywhere.
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Wrap: Washington University in St. Louis has seen just four suspected cases so far, but Associate Vice Chancellor for Student Relations said they are not taking any chances.

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Description: What we're doing is following the CDC guidelines and asking these students to self-isolate, which means staying in their room or their apartment for at least a period until they're fever free for at least 24 hours.

He said they have been installing hand sanitizers strategically around campus, making posters to inform students about how to stay healthy.

He also said there has been special training for Residence Hall Advisers who will bring food to sick students who can't leave their rooms.

From Jefferson City, this is Allison Blood, KSMU radio.

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