ILI cases on the decline at KSC

Influenza-like-illnesses have yet to be reported at Keene State College during the Spring 2010 semester.

“We haven’t seen any influenza-like-illness back on campus this semester,” Christine Burke, director of the Center for Health and Wellness said. According to Burke, it will be hard to determine whether students are ill with the seasonal flu or H1N1 because both are occurring now.

“Part of it has to do with the number of students who got seasonal flu vaccine this year. We had 700 versus 100 and we had 400 students get the H1N1 vaccine this year,” Burke said. According to Burke, the Center for Health and Wellness has seen an uptick in conjunctivitis cases.

“Conjunctivitis is an infection of the eyes where your eyes get all gunky; it is contagious. We’ve seen a lot of students in the last two weeks with it,” Burke said.

An e-mail sent to KSC students Monday, Feb. 22 from the Health and Wellness Center encouraged students to continue washing hands, covering coughs, exercising and sleeping in order to stay healthy.

“People laugh somewhat with how many times we tell you to wash your hands, but what you see a lot of is shared keyboards and passing cups. This transmission of stuff passes a lot these illnesses,” Burke said. “The key to prevention is washing your hands and hand sanitizer and that’s as effective at preventing illness such as conjunctivitis as it is the flu.”
According to Burke, there have been other illnesses reported at KSC recently.
“We are also seeing viral pneumonia and some more cold-like illnesses than the flu,” Burke said.

For more information, to make an appointment or   to ask questions regarding health, students can reach the Center for Health and Wellness at 358-2450.

Stuart Ross can be contacted at wross1@ksc.mailcruiser.com.