Daemen College : News : News Releases
Daemen Taking Initiatives to Maintain Health on Campus
Media
Contact: Mike Andrei
Director-College Relations
839-8472
mandrei@daemen.edu
The H1N1 virus (“swine flu”) is a serious concern for colleges and universities across the country. To promote health during the flu season, Daemen College is taking appropriate steps to ensure that we are both preventing contagion to the extent possible and planning for the consequences of a possible flu outbreak among students and/or employees. We will be reviewing and revising, as needed, policies such as student absenteeism and sick days for faculty and staff, that may make it difficult for students, faculty, and staff to stay home when they are ill or to care for an ill family member.
Flu symptoms include fever greater than 100.0 F or chills, and cough or sore throat. They also may include runny nose, body aches, headaches, tiredness, diarrhea or vomiting.
*Vaccinations for both H1N1 and “regular” flu will be offered on campus for both students and employees.
*The Daemen maintenance staff has installed hand sanitizers throughout the campus and employees are being encouraged to take other housekeeping measures, such as wiping down high touch surfaces – i.e. door handles – with sanitizing wipes in high-traffic areas to minimize the possibility of infection.
“While the severity of the upcoming flu season is, of course, unpredictable, there are, nevertheless, a combination of actions that we can take to prevent the spread of illness to the extent possible,” noted Daemen President Dr. Martin J. Anisman in a message to the Daemen College community. “We are urging members of the Daemen campus community to follow recommendations of the CDC. We are, also, implementing policy changes as well as specific housekeeping measures in an effort to hopefully minimize the impact of H1N1 type of illness on our students, faculty, and staff.”
Practices suggested by the Daemen administration, and, those recommended by the CDC to prevent the spread of all types of flu (viewable at www.cdc.gov/flu/ ) include:
Faculty members and supervisors of employees are being afforded sufficient flexibility regarding policies so that students and staff do not feel pressure to be in attendance in spite of illness.
Those with flu like illness are being asked to stay away from classes and limit interactions with
other people (called “self isolation”), except to seek medical care, for at least 24 hours after they no longer have a fever, or signs of a fever, without the use of fever reducing medicines.
Basic hygiene practices such as handwashing for at least 20 seconds with soap and water, using hand sanitizer before and after using equipment and supplies used by others (computer keyboards, pens, door knobs and handles, phones, etc), refraining from eating or drinking after another person.
Students are being urged to establish a “flu buddy scheme” in which students pair up to care for each other if one or the other becomes ill by picking up and delivering food from the dining room to the ill student. While in “self-isolation” students can make contact with others through email, text messaging, phone calls.
Students with flu-like illness are being encouraged to promptly seek medical attention if they have a
medical condition that puts them at increased risk of severe illness from flu, are
concerned about their illness, or develop severe symptoms such as increased fever,
shortness of breath, chest pain or pressure, or rapid breathing.
Daemen faculty are being asked not to require a doctor’s note for students, faculty, or staff
to validate their illness or to return to work, as doctor’s offices and medical facilities
may be extremely busy and may not be able to provide such documentation in a timely way.
Distance learning and web-based learning may be used to help students maintain self isolation while they are recovering from the flu; they may also help faculty members provide class information should they become ill with flu-like symptoms.
One of the ways to protect against the flu is to get vaccinated against the flu. People under age 25 are one of the key groups recommended by CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) to be among the first to receive the 2009 H1N1 flu vaccine. For more information, visit http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/vaccination .
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