US: H1N1 creeps onto campuses

A summer of anticipation and worst-case-scenario planning has given way to a new academic year of inevitable illness as the H1N1 flu virus appears at colleges and universities across the nation, writes Jennifer Epstein for Inside Higher Ed. As many institutions ratchet up to full capacity with students, faculty and staff returning for autumn classes, campuses from Kansas to California and just about everywhere in between are beginning to report handfuls to hundreds of cases, mostly among students.

Though it is still too early to predict how widespread and severe H1N1 will be this autumn and winter, administrators are taking cues from state governments and the Departments of Education and Health and Human Services in anticipating outbreaks much larger and more dangerous than those seen among students during the spring and summer.

The University of Kansas prepared for an outbreak by creating handouts to help students diagnose themselves with the virus and to figure out how to deal with being sick while living in on-campus housing. Todd Cohen, director of university relations, said the cases peaked on August 29 with 313 sick students that day.
Full report on the Inside Higher Ed site