Colleges See Rise in H1N1 Swine Flu
Campuses Are Experiencing First Increase in Cases Since Last Fall
By Daniel J. DeNoon
WebMD Health News
Feb. 24, 2010 — College campuses are seeing the first uptick in new H1N1 swine flu cases since November.
New H1N1 swine flu cases are up 52% since last week — to 4.1 cases per 10,000 students from 2.7 per 10,000 last week, the American College Health Association (ACHA) reports. Of the AHCA’s 178 members, 59% report new cases of swine flu.
“We may be seeing a bit of an uptick,” AHCA Executive Director James C. Turner, MD, said at today’s meeting of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP).
Rates of new infections were highest on campuses in Oklahoma, Missouri, Indiana, North Carolina, and Mississippi. In Missouri, the swine flu attack rate was up 17-fold over the previous week.
Even so, CDC flu expert Anthony Fiore, MD, says there’s no overall indication that a new wave of H1N1 swine flu is under way. National surveillance still shows the flu pandemic continuing to decline, although there’s a small uptick in some Southwestern states.
