<p>I understand there are now about 80 - 100 suspected cases. My son hasn't checked in since Sunday - so I wondering how things are going. I've checked the website - not a whole lot of detail there. Anyone have more details?</p>
<p>It is pretty mild, I would not be overly concerned at this interval.</p>
<p>Spoke with D (senior) last night. She was a Health Advisor for Freshman Orientation and has been in touch w/ Student Health. I told her I had read on CC there were 80 confirmed cases of H1N1, and that the “magic” number of cases is 250, i.e. that’s when they close the school and send kids home. She said there aren’t 80 confirmed cases; it takes time for the test results to come back. There have been quite a few kids showing up at Student Health w/ flu-like symptoms, but some/many may be regular flu. ALSO, that whole “magic” number is a rumor that always starts flying around campus whenever there’s a flu outbreak of any variety. Her sophomore year there were a lot of cases of regular flu, and the rumored magic number was 300. She said that time, 2 years ago, Wake did hand out bottles of hand sanitizer, though.</p>
<p>I remember that flu–I had about four days where I was pretty miserable. I remember that I had one class that was supposed to have 16 people, and one day only six people were there. And yes, the magic number was a rumor. There’s no doubt in my mind that more than 300 people who were sick. A number of professors did cancel class, though, both because they knew a lot of us were sick, and because a fair number of them also caught the same flu.</p>
<p>Uggh- I catch this stuff once or twice a year, especially during January and February. It was actually pretty widespread last year too. So far as I have heard, there are only two CONFIRMED swine flu cases here, and as many as 80-100 suspected ones. They key is, they tell students that they have “flu-like” symptoms, and tell them to stay in their rooms- but they do not always (in fact, they rarely) actually test for swine flu. School administration really doesn’t want to shut down campus. </p>
<p>There are confounding factors, though. For instance, a lot of kids have trouble telling the difference between a cold and the (swine) flu, and either brush it off without treatment, or overestimate it. There are always a lot of bugs that go around campus about this time of year anyways, including the regular flu, and it would be difficult to pinpoint the exact number of cases without actual testing. </p>
<p>On top of it all, getting out of class wouldn’t be a big a big break for us students anyway, due to the contingency plan ;)</p>
<p>Well my son is pretty sick - he finally called last night - went to Student Health Services yesterday - and based on his symptoms - was told he probably has swine flu. They gave him Tylenol, Sudafed, etc. and told him to stay in his dorm room. Healthy kids are supposed to bring food to the sick kids. I was told by Student Health Services that the cases so far have been pretty mild. They tell the kids to contact them again if it worsens, and so far no one has done so. So, chalk it up to part of the college bonding experience.</p>
<p>I assume this doesn’t make you feel any better, but my friends and I still talk about “remember when we all had that flu at the same time?” I remember feeling miserable, but I also remember curling up on my bed with friends and watching movies and spending all day with our doors open talking to each other across the hallway when we weren’t asleep.</p>
<p>But in all seriousness, tell your son not to hesitate to go back to student health if it gets worse and otherwise just to rest and take it easy. I hope he feels better soon.</p>
<p>Quick update - son is feeling much better today. This flu seems to hit hard and fast - then departs just as quickly. I think the university handled it pretty well - the care pkg thing with healthy kids bringing food to the sick kids went fine. Apparently the number of new cases is now declining - so it seems the worst is over.</p>
<p>So glad to hear that he’s feeling better! I just sent a care package and included cold and flu stuff just in case, though it hasn’t gotten to DS’s floor yet. (knocks wood)</p>