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18 suspected swine flu cases reported at Carnegie Mellon
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Eighteen suspected cases of H1N1 influenza have prompted Carnegie Mellon University to take action to reduce exposures and prevent a full-fledged outbreak.
In a university e-mail yesterday, officials said 18 students have contacted Student Health Services about having flu-like illness.
Classes will continue.
But the university does recommend that students living off campus should remain home and avoid contact with others, while those in residential housing whose hometowns are not near to Pittsburgh will be cared for by staff members in Student Health Services, Housing, Dining and Student Affairs.
Students will remain in isolation until fever-free for 24 hours after they've stopped taking fever-reducing medications, based on a U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention directives.
The university also advises students to monitor their temperature and isolate themselves should they develop a fever.
"If you live within 150 miles of campus, we encourage you to recuperate at home, if at all possible," the e-mail said.
Efforts are under way to isolate sick students who live on campus, including where they receive their meals and health care. Those off-campus also should isolate themselves and seek assistance from roommates or house mates to provide food and medications.
The university will alert professors that ill students will not attend class but will receive an opportunity to make up the classes and class work.
First Published August 25, 2009 11:57 am
