With bags containing bars of soap and hand sanitizers, the Cornell University Emergency Medical Services surprised students walking through Ho Plaza Friday as part of this year’s anti-flu “Got Soap?” campaign. The hand-hygiene packages were also distributed on West Campus and North Campus.

Tiffany Chang ’11, director of CUEMS, said the campaign began last fall in response to the flu pandemic. The primary goal of the campaign is to “promote the importance of good hand hygiene,” according to Chang.

Despite significantly lower numbers of reported flu cases, this year’s “Got Soap?” initiative had even greater amounts of hygiene materials to distribute than in years past. Chang said CUEMS received 19,000 bars of soap, 1,000 hand sanitizers and 1,000 disinfectant wipes — all donated by distributors free of charge — to hand out throughout the campaign.

According to Chang, last Thursday night, 6,700 bars of soap were delivered to dorms across campus. An additional 4,500 bars were distributed Friday.

“We have received a lot of support from different [University] departments, such as Environmental Health, Campus Life and Gannett,” Chang said. Public Health Communications Specialist at Gannett Heather Stone added, “The difference between this year and [the] last lies within the change of circumstance, not the message.”

According to Stone, because of the flu’s continuous presence during the upcoming months, “it is just as important this year as it was last year to remember to wash your hands to lower your risk of transmitting illness.”

Stone said that this semester Gannett has administered more than 7,800 vaccines for the flu to Cornell community members. 

Less than five cases of influenza-like illnesses have been diagnosed this Fall, which according to Stone is “fairly typical” for a flu season that is just beginning.

In addition to its active collaboration with CUEMS’s “Got Soap?” campaign, Stone said that Gannett’s own flu prevention campaign is in “full swing.”

“We are providing posters, fliers, web and e-mail messages reinforcing strategies for reducing the risk of getting sick with the flu or passing it to others,” Stone said. “Hand washing and covering coughs are key strategies, as are maintaining a healthy immune system and staying out of circulation when sick.”

The protection against the flu will preserve both students’ physical and mental health, according to Stone.

“We often say to students: Whoever you are, and whatever you do as a Cornell student, your experience will be affected by your health and the health of the community you are part of, by choice or coincidence,” she said. “By ‘health’ we include physical health and mental health.”

Stone commended the CUEMS “for their leadership in focusing the attention of the Cornell community on the important role hand hygiene has in staying healthy during flu season” and invited all members of the University community to take advantage of the free flu vaccines offered by Gannet.

Andres Silvestry ’13, who received one of the Got Soap? packages as he walked to class through Ho Plaza on Friday, said the initiative was a “good one,” although he admitted to having thrown the bag into his drawer when getting back to his room.