Flu bug flies into campus at high speed

Influenza has hit JMU hard already this year, with the University Health Center reporting about 30 cases per day of students with flu-related symptoms.

As the height of the flu season approaches, the Health Center prepares to serve the JMU community.

According to Linda Smith, associate director of the Health Center, what commonly is referred to as the flu is a respiratory illness caused by influenza and accompanied by a battery of symptoms including fever, muscle ache, headache cough, chest ache and a sudden onset of exhaustion.

"Here at the Health Center we are beginning to see the effects of flu season," Smith said. "Although we expect it to peak in February."

The Center for Disease Control has done flu-season surveillance over the past 19 years, according to Smith. Nine of those years the season peaked in February.

According to Jonathan Malone, medical director of the Health Center, "If students come within the first day or two, there is more that we can do to treat the flu."

Malone said antiviral medication has been used in treating students who are early in the course of the flu. "Tamiflu is a five-day course of medication that will help relieve symptoms and shorten the course of the illness by two days," Malone said.

According to the InteliHealth Web site (www.intelihealth.com), the flu can last from 24 hours to more than a week. Malone said that the fever can last for three to five days while the residual cough, sore throat and exhaustion can last up to two weeks.

Methods of preventing the spread of the flu are to practice good hygiene by washing hands frequently and covering the mouth when sneezing or coughing. The flu vaccine also is highly recommended and available at the Health Center.

According to Smith, the Health Center already has administered over 1,400 flu shots and has only 300 vaccinations remaining. "The sooner you get the vaccine the better protection it provides," Smith said. "It takes two weeks for the flu vaccine to become effective and develop peak immunity."

According to the InteliHealth Web site, "The current flu vaccine is composed of inactivated, or dead, influenza viruses of those particular (flu) strains … Inactivated viruses don't cause illness, but they trick the immune system into responding as if they were a real threat. The body prepares a defense and attacks the already dead virus. Later, when live influenza enters the body, the immune system remembers the virus and, with its defenses ready, quickly attacks and fights off disease."

According to Smith, the vaccine is still combative even when administered during the flu season.
According to the Health Center Web site, the flu shots are "70 percent to 90 percent effective for most people at protecting against three strains of flu."

Smith said she was pleased with the increase in student utilization of the flu vaccine this year and attributes the success in part to the marketing through the Office of Health Promotions.

Junior Kerry Williams said, "I will remind myself how miserable I am feeling now when I am too lazy to get a shot next year."

The Center for Disease Control also does surveillance and tracks cases of influenza activity and places states into the categories of no activity, sporadic, regional activity and widespread. In the most recent weekly surveillance, Virginia fell into the regional activity level.

"These studies show that the flu is not just prevalent at JMU or in Harrisonburg," Smith said.

"Although predictably the flu does spread faster in communal settings," Smith said, referring to the on-campus dorms.

Junior Jose Gonzalez said, "The flu season really hit me hard. As soon as I got back to school, I got a bad cough and runny nose. I eventually went to the Health Center and got some medicine and after a week and a half, I was feeling better."

In an excerpt from "Colds: What's Myth and What's Fact," featured on the InteliHealth Web site, a common myth is dispelled. "People often complain of the 'stomach flu' an illnesses that strictly speaking does not exist. The influenza virus that causes flu affects only the respiratory system, not the digestive tract, upset stomachs are caused by other germs, including a variety of viruses and food-born bacteria."

Junior Leah McCombe said, "I did not even realize I may have had the flu until I read the list of symptoms. I just thought I had a cold that just wouldn't go away."