3 colleges say student body flu symptoms are increasing

Flu cases reportedly have spiked in recent days at three of St. Lawrence County's four colleges, including St. Lawrence University, Canton, where sick students have been isolated from healthy roommates.

Clarkson University, Potsdam, SUNY Potsdam and SLU have seen increased numbers of students showing up at campus health centers with flu symptoms, college officials said Monday.

The exception is SUNY Canton, which hasn't experienced any spikes since the flu season started earlier this fall, according to Randy B. Sieminski, college spokesman.

"Having classes only four days a week rather than five may be helping us," Mr. Sieminski said. "We have one less day a week where folks on campus are interacting with each other."

In most cases, it's not clear whether students are suffering from regular seasonal flu or from H1N1, or swine flu, because the state Department of Health is not routinely testing to make that distinction.

Over the weekend, several Halloween social events were canceled on campuses, including SUNY Potsdam's annual trick-or-treating event Saturday for local children.

"We didn't want to invite people into the residence halls," said Deidre L. Kelly, SUNY Potsdam spokeswoman. "We definitely have had a lot of sick students on campus."

As of Monday, 71 students at SLU had been diagnosed with flu this fall, including 21 new cases over the weekend, according to university spokeswoman Macreena A. Doyle.

SLU students diagnosed with flu have been advised to stay in their rooms, while their healthy roommates have been relocated to other rooms, she said.

If necessary, lounge areas will be made available for healthy students to sleep in, Ms. Doyle said.

The number of students visiting Clarkson University's health center peaked Friday, with 20 students showing up there with flu-like symptoms, said Michael P. Griffin, university spokesman.

The health center had been seeing about a dozen students a day until Friday, Mr. Griffin said.

"Our health center is booked all day today and tomorrow with appointments," Mr. Griffin said. "If students stay on campus, we are asking them not to go to class so they don't infect others."

Since the flu season started, 125 Clarkson students have shown flu symptoms, he said.

Students with flu symptoms at both Clarkson and SUNY Potsdam have been encouraged to go home to their families to recuperate and to help keep the illness from spreading on campus.

"If they can't go home, we're asking them to stay in their room, a self-quarantine situation," Ms. Kelly said.

College officials are hoping that extra immunization clinics scheduled this week on their campuses will help curb the outbreak of both seasonal flu and H1N1 flu.

At SUNY Potsdam, immunization clinics for both types of flu were held Monday with another scheduled today for students, faculty and staff.

On Thursday, SLU plans to offer both the seasonal and H1N1 vaccine for students and campus employees, providing the vaccination supply arrives in time.

Seasonal flu vaccines were offered earlier this fall at SLU. Two weeks ago, the H1N1 vaccine was available to high-risk groups there.

"We're really hoping people get vaccinated, that a lot of folks take advantage of that," Ms. Doyle said.

Two weeks ago, about 400 students, faculty and staff were immunized for H1N1 at Clarkson, which plans to hold another clinic when additional supplies arrive.

Seasonal flu clinics have been held at SUNY Canton, which plans to schedule an H1N1 clinic after a shipment of that vaccine arrives.

The health center at SUNY Canton is seeing about 12 to 15 students a week with flu symptoms, Mr. Sieminski said.

"So far, we haven't seen the big surge that other schools have seen, knock on wood. It's been steady, but manageable," he said.