As of Nov. 30, 1,628 students have been diagnosed by Gannett with probable H1N1. The highest rates of infection occurred in early September, when the number of students diagnosed with probable H1N1 at Gannett peaked at 103 per day.

During the outbreak, 565 students were diagnosed at Gannett with probable H1N1 over a two-week period from Sept. 7 to Sept. 20. During this two-week period, Gannett stopped routine appointments and organized extra staffing in order to deal with the influx of patients. The Interfraternity Council also placed a moratorium on social events during this time to reduce the transmission of the virus. Sadly, this outbreak was also marked by the tragic death of Warren Schor ’11, who passed away from complications related to the virus.

While the number of cases drastically declined following the initial spike, for the past few weeks Gannett has still been diagnosing between 20 and 25 patients per day with probable H1N1. According to the New York State Department of Health, all forms of influenza in New York State area are of the H1N1 strain.

Sharon Dittman, director of Community Relations at Gannett, explained how handling the H1N1 outbreak, in addition to treating a variety of traditional winter illnesses, has been extremely taxing on Gannett staff.

“I think it really is challenging to our staff to have the intense patient load day after day, week after week,” Dittman said. “One of the values we have as a staff is we want to treat every single person with individualized, personal care and when you’re in the middle of an epidemic, that takes a sustained level of attention which adds to the pressure and the exhaustion.”

According to Dittman, Cornell’s executive director of University Health Services organized meetings with the New York State Department of Health, local institutions of higher education, community hospital leadership and local health departments to coordinate responses to the pandemic. Cornell has also worked closely with Tompkins County Health Department, Ithaca College and Tompkins Cortland Community College to organize a Campus-Community Coalition forum on H1N1 in order to share materials and information.

The Cornell Flu Line, a phone number that individuals can call to seek more information about H1N1, was also created in response to the flu outbreak earlier in the semester.

Peggy Beach, director of Campus Information and Visitor Relations, coordinated the creation of the Cornell Flu Line in an effort to reduce the number of calls Gannett received so staff could better treat patients. According to Beach, eight to nine individuals from divisions including University Communications, Campus Life and the Dean of Student’s office participate in the program. All members are voluntary participants and are trained to answer questions regarding H1N1 influenza. As of November, the line has received more than 2,000 calls.

Looking forward, Dittman stressed that one of the major goals of Gannett is to keep individuals aware of the fact that mild illnesses can sometimes become more serious. In order to accomplish this, Gannett has used follow-up calls to monitor the recovery of patients and has brought many individuals back for follow-up visits.

Gannett has also been promoting vaccination as a way to preserve healthcare resources.

“The fewer people we have [to treat] with the flu, the more available we are to deal with everything else students get during the winter,” Dittman said.

As of Nov. 30, 1,675 students had received an H1N1 vaccination at Gannett and 2,055 individuals had been vaccinated against H1N1 in total. Gannett expects of new shipment of 1,000 H1N1 vaccines sometime next week that will be available to the general student population.

In terms of seasonal flu, 3,574 students and 5,831 individuals in total have been vaccinated at Gannett. Last year, a total of 11,322 seasonal flu vaccines were administered by February, of which 5,600 were given to students.

Dittman said that another challenge moving into the winter months will be tracking and dealing with the appearance of seasonal flu alongside H1N1 influenza. While both strains of flu are transmitted in the same way and cause similar symptoms, last year’s strain of seasonal flu was resistant to Tamiflu, an anti-viral drug used to treat the flu. However, H1N1 is very responsive to Tamiflu and Relenza treatment. This distinction presents a challenge, as only lab tests can confirm which strain an individual is carrying.

“We are working as we speak on how we are going to handle the people who need to have anti-viral medication and what they are going to get.” Dittman said. “If all we have is H1N1, we will continue to use Tamiflu and Relenza. If we also have seasonal flu in the mix, we will follow guidelines of the New York State Health Department regarding anti-viral treatment in the event there is a strain that is resistant to those medications.”